Winter's Fury
by snowman1989
Summary: Now Complete! The Titans oversee a now peaceful Jump City only to encounter a new threat: a villain able to generate intense cold and possessing unnatural strength.
1. No Place for Us?

Okay, this is my first fan-fic and I'll probably make a whole load of mistakes regarding the Teen Titans. But screw it, I've seen a lot of people do far worse stories so I'll just bite the bullet.

**DISCLAIMER: **Do I need to say it? I don't own the Teen Titans, but the new villain was my idea.

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**Winter's Fury**

**Chapter 1: No Place for Us?**

The sun shone brilliantly over Jump City, without a cloud in the sky. It had been six months after the Brotherhood of Evil had finally been brought to its knees and beaten, and everything had been peaceful ever since. Mainly because most of the villains that had been plagueing Jump City had been snap-frozen in Paris and were now under lock and key. Only a few, most notably Red X and Slade, were still at large, but because very little had happened the authorities assumed that they had packed up out of town. The Titans faced mere common criminals now, and none of them were dumb enough to take on a one-man SWAT team ninja, an alien powerhouse, a shapeshifter, a cyborg and a seriously creepy looking sorceress just to steal cigarettes from the local gas-station in broad daylight.

"PUT THE MONEY IN THE BAG! AND THOSE CIGGIES!!!"

Well, almost none of them.

The petty thief ran out the front door to make his escape…

CLUNCK!

…only to hit something hard and metallic, falling to the ground.

The pathetic black masked thug looked up slowly, terrified, to see a tall, heavily built robotic teenager stare sternly down on him. The crook quickly got to his feet and drew a revolver from his pocket.

"Get back! Or I'll shoot!"

Cyborg sighed monotonously. This was the third time this week he'd run into some loser trying to steal what amounted to pocket money from the same gas-station. All he wanted was to be back at the tower, creaming Beast Boy yet again at video games or making the latest upgrades to the T-Car and T-Sub. But Robin insisted on maintaining these pointless patrols, stopping crimes that the police could easily manage. The police weren't incompetent, they just couldn't handle the more dangerous, albeit absent, metahuman supervillains.

Cyborg advanced on the crook, who fired several rounds into Cyborg's metal chest, bouncing harmlessly off. The thief dropped the gun in shock, and quickly turned around to run, only to feel a cold robotic hand grab him by the scruff of the neck.

"Finished so soon? This was almost getting vaguely interesting."

Cyborg walked wearily into the gas-station, still holding the struggling thief, and dumped the bag on the counter.

"Mornin' Tim."

"'Mornin' Cyborg. Thanks for returning the money and ciggies. I'll take it from here."

The shopkeep got out a length of rope and tied up the thief while Cyborg held him down. Not that it would have made a difference; the dumb fool was still in complete shock at the appearance of one of the local legends.

"Why these fools bother, I don't know," Cyborg growled, "There's no more decent bad-guy butt to kick anymore."

"It's a dream come true to me, to tell the truth," Tim replied, "No more collateral damage from all that fighting, the street gangs are almost gone and business is booming thanks to you guys. I thought you'd be happy."

"I am man, but I feel as if we're just becoming a fifth wheel around here." Cyborg said dejectedly, "I mean, there's no one left to threaten the city. Mission accomplished! I'm starting to think Robin's deluding himself, thinking that it isn't. Maybe there's no place for the Titans in the new Jump City. Maybe we're better off getting into a normal civilian routine. Raven's always talked about how nice it would be to go to school."

The thief looked up hopefully, but Tim shook his head and said "Dear lad, there's always going to be a place for you here. There's something about this city that attracts a whole lot of psychopaths and monsters, and you just packing up and leaving will destroy everything we've all worked so hard to achieve in keeping the peace. There'll be more big fish in the sea to fry. Mark my words."

"Maybe you're right," Cyborg said doubtfully, yet seriously; the thief again looking like Christmas had been cancelled. "Who knows everything about this city? Anyway, I've got to go report back. And boot BB's butt to kingdom come at Tekken 5," Cyborg grinned. Aside from doting over the T-Car like a mother hen over its chick, Beast Boy's humiliation at his hands was the highlight of his day. "I'll see you soon to bust the next robbery."

"See you later, lad." Tim called as Cyborg left.

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On the other side of the city stood a tall, imposing steel and glass building with the words "Jump City Central Bank" emblazoned at the entrance. Bland name aside, this was the most secure and dangerous bank to rob on the west coast. The security guards were armed with the latest weaponry, from Magnum pistols to automatic M16 assault rifles. The more secure vaults were guarded by armoured guards with the revolutionary laser weaponry, making them look like something out of _Battlestar Galactica._ All the vaults had 15-bit encryption codes, so hacking into them could easily take hours. Some of them were even electrified. And assuming that if anyone actually managed to break into one of the vaults, a secondary vault door would close to trap the would-be thief or thieves inside, the riches within useless. Overall, morale was high and the guards were overconfident and out of practice. There were no more battle-hardened superhuman threats to deal with anymore.

How very wrong they were.

The guards chattered animatedly amongst themselves, failing to notice a dark figure in a trenchcoat approach the counter.

"Can I, err, help you sir?" the receptionist asked nervously.

"Yes," replied the stranger in a chilling tone, "I would like access to vault number 175."

"Do you, um, have a, ah, what I mean is…" The man was really freaking her out. Two cold, dark blue eyes were regarding her with impatience. He seemed to be wearing some kind of black scarf around his mouth, nose and head, and what little skin was showing was deathly pale and mottled with black patches, like some kind of disease.

One of the guards then noticed the fear on the receptionist's face, and approached the stranger.

"Is there a problem, sir?"

"Yeah. You."

With that, he suddenly grabbed the guard by the collar and threw him bodily into the desk, the wood and reinforced glass exploding under the impact. The rest of the guards then drew their weapons and set off the alarm, the high pitched whine ringing in everyones ears. Security now surrounded the lone figure.

"Freeze, freakshow!"

The figure looked slightly bemused.

"Alright, then."

The assailant then thrust his hands forward and shot out a white blast at one of the guards, freezing him instantly with a look of horror on his face. The shocked guards then opened fire, but a wave of solid ice materialised around the enemy, freezing the bullets in their tracks, and knocking all the stunned guards into the walls. The cold blast shattered all the glass and threw the furniture around like toys. The alarm was silenced when a guard misfired, hitting the control panel.

The attacker surveyed the scene, daring any guards still standing to shoot him.

"Is everyone quite finished?" He got no reply; the remaining guards fearfully withdrawing quietly into the shadows. "Good."

He made his way back to what was left of the desk, the guard moaning in the wreckage. The receptionist was still there, lips twitching, shellshocked, her hair frozen comically on end from the blast.

"Whaaa…..wha.. .what dydydyoo you want?" stammered the unfortunate woman.

"Like I said, I would like access to vault number 175. Take me there."

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I would have written more, but I just got lazy. You might blame me for having this new guy too much like Mr. Freeze or Killer Frost, but one only needs to look at Robin and his clone Speedy. That's my argument and I'm sticking to it.

Oh, and the dialogue between Cyborg and Tim? A little random, but I thought I'd have a civilian represent the citizens of Jump on the situation; he's more qualified than a narrator.

I reckon I messed up the story already. Anyway, reviews please.


	2. Frostbite

So far no reviews. Come on, I can't improve if you guys don't tell me.

Anyway, here's chapter two. I hope it's better than the last.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Teen Titans, DC Comics does.

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**Chapter 2: Frostbite**

The white armoured security guards lowered their weapons as the invader advanced toward the high security vaults, the woman held captive in his icy grip. The woman looked dazed and confused, as if she didn't believe what was happening.

After about thirty seconds the two stood in front of an imposing solid steel door with the number 175 forged professionally at the top. A complicated looking computer lock next to it.

"Do you know the password?"

"Nn no, I-I I'm just the receptionist."

The stranger groaned. "Figures. I have to do everything myself. Are there any security features I should be aware of?"

"N-no, nothing," she said more steadily.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

The invader suddenly swung around and grabbed the surprised white guard that had been creeping up behind him with a nightstick, and threw him at the vault door. A flash of blinding light erupted into the corridor and the guard's shrieks ended as quickly as they started. The smoking guard slid quietly to the floor, unconscious. The brief look of hope on the womans face was quickly extinguished.

"Hmm, an electrified door. I'm very sure that counts as a security feature. Were you by any chance attempting to lie to me?"

"N-no, no, not at all!"

"Enough games. Tell me the password to the vault or I will freeze your fingers off, one by one!"

"But… but I don't know the password!" she cried desperately.

"Then allow me to refresh your memory!"

The attacker made a move toward the terrified woman, only to have a black, taloned hand grab him by the waist and fling him into the electrified door. Five seconds of flashing lights and strangled yells later, he collapsed onto his hands and knees onto the tiled floor.

A dark, cloaked figure emerged from a black pool in the floor and apprached the woman.

"Get out of here. Now," she told the shaking woman.

The lady didn't need to be told twice. She ran for her life back down the corridor, slipping several times and losing one of her high heels. Six more armoured guards armed with laser rifles advanced forward from around the corner.

The stranger snarled in frustration through his improvised mask. This was not going his way or according to plan; especially now that the guards had gotten their backbones back. He got to his feet and regarded his new adversary. She was dressed in blue boots, a plain blue cloak with a bird-head shaped hood that hid her face and a ruby red broach. She stared at her enemy with an intimidating glare that surprised and impressed him. Not that he showed it.

"I was under the impression that you were supposed to be red, Riding Hood."

"I was under the impression that you wore a hockey mask, Jason. And my name is Raven."

"Hm. Appropriate. And my name is Frostbite. It has been a pleasure meeting you Raven, but I'm afraid I have work to do here, so if you and your _entourage _would be so kind as to stay out of my way…"

"Not going to happen." Raven interrupted harshly. "You are going to go to jail. Simple as that."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple."

Quick as a flash, Frostbite fired a block of ice at the empath, who was just as quick to conjure up a shield in front of her, where the ice shattered into little pebbles. Frostbite took advantage of the distraction to charge the startled guards. The first one he punched in the head, feeling the helmet crumple under the force, knocking the guard out instantly. Another guard attempted to fire but found that Frostbite had gummed up the barrel with ice, causing the end of the gun to explode and forcing him backwards into three other guards. The last guard managed to point the rifle directly into Frostbite's chest, and dared him to move. Frostbite quickly swerved to the side just as the guard fired a blast, scorching a hole in Frostbite's trenchcoat, but otherwise not harming him. Frostbite then grabbed the rifle with his left hand, while slamming his elbow into the guard's chest, forcing him to release his weapon and skid across the tiled floor.

Frostbite now was not only facing Raven, who no longer had any backup, but to add insult to injury, he now had a laser rifle pointed at her.

Which he would not have for very long. The rifle then started to glow an eerie black and was twisted up until it was a useless mass of metal. Frostbite narrowly avoided being concussed by the possessed lump when it flung itself at his face.

_How was that possible? _thought Frostbite. _Darkness doesn't reflect, or twist metal. _It was clear that he was up against something more arcane and dangerous than himself, but Frostbite didn't believe in the arcane. There had to be an explanation, but much as he wanted to know more, he had a job to do, and did not have time to be held up by a Samara lookalike.

Frostbite charged again, but was halted by another black shield, which he then froze over and promptly shattered. Raven was left reeling from the shock, but recovered in time to fly up and shoot several black blasts at him that forced him to evade and shredded up his trenchcoat.

He tore off the trenchcoat (which was starting to hinder his movement) to reveal an outfit that looked like a cross between goth and thermal winter gear. He wore a faded black leather jacket with several metal (but blunt) spikes sticking out the shoulders, that was half unzipped to reveal a pitch black polo neck shirt that went up to the base of his chin. He had white leather gloves with hard metal knobs on the knuckles covered in ice and dripping water from his attacks. Lastly, he wore black cargo pants with a spiked leather belt and combat boots. With the way he was dressed, it was impossible to tell what he looked like underneath , and equally impossible to figure out how he wasn't sweating bullets from wearing black leather and wool on a particularly warm summer's day.

"Last chance to change your mind Raven." Frostbite rasped. "I don't want to fight you, but I will not hesitate to do so."

"Don't sell me that self-righteous garbage, I don't buy it." Raven retorted.

Now that diplomacy had failed once again, Frostbite rapidly fired several ice blasts at Raven which shattered and fell like glass against another shield. Frostbite then jumped over the frosted shield to ambush her from behind.

But she was already gone, a shrinking black pool being all that was left.

Frostbite doubted that she had fled; rather, that she would strike any second. Cover in the corridor was damn awful to say the least, just an electrified vault door and a pile of groaning guards, one of them embarrassingly in the middle of a night terror. Something about cobras.

When Raven re-emerged behind Frostbite, he had already decided on a course of action. He picked up a guard and threw him at the vault door.

Raven's eyes widened in shock and anger at such a low tactic and quickly stopped the flying guard, encasing him in dark energy.

"Think fast!"

Raven barely had enough time to stop the next guard colliding with her face. His shrieks were not helping her concentration.

"C-cobras! Cooobraaaaass!"

Without warning, Frostbite appeared to the right of Raven and with unnatural speed kicked Raven brutally in the side, slamming her into the wall.

Needless to say, it hurt like hell.

Raven felt as if the right side of her body was on fire and was being crushed at the same time. She resisted the urge to vomit and tried to get up, but the pain was far too acute. She expected Frostbite to try and finish her off (he certainly was brutal enough) but he simply stood there glaring coldly at her, as if guessing what she was thinking.

"Despite what you may believe, I do not enjoy punishing you for interrupting my work. I respect what you are trying to do, but trust me, it's not worth getting in my way."

Raven wanted nothing more than to skin Frostbite alive and send him to another dimension where he would burn in hell, but the nausea, pain and splitting migrane from that accursed guard left her incapacitated.

Frostbite turned around to make another attempt at the vault door…

WHUMP!

…and found himself laying on his back on the floor, face to face with a snarling green Siberian Tiger.

Frostbite may have been suprised by this once, but after fighting Raven, anything seemed possible at this point. But it didn't help his increasingly foul mood. He was going nowhere fast, and had still not achieved his objective. The tiger's odious, strangely tofu-smelling breath was really pushing it.

"You need to lay off the lasagna, Garfield," snapped Frostbite, punching the tiger in the gut and forcing him back several feet.

Frostbite sprang back up and was met with a wire mesh net that wrapped itself completely around him that constricted and almost made him fall back down again. He was now facing three teenagers: one had spiky hair that stood on end and wore a red, yellow and green uniform that would best be described as an eyesore. The tiger was gone and in its place was a weird looking green kid in a black and purple uniform, looking slightly winded and enraged. The last teen was half person and half machine. In other words…

"A walking traffic light, a green elf and the Six Billion Dollar Man. I certainly have the luck of the Irish."

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Please give me a review. Nothing else for me to say here.


	3. Titans, GO!

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I still have no reviews. I'll finish this chapter and wait awhile, because I want to try and develop a better story from this, and I don't get any reviews, I'll know that's my cue to stop.

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**Chapter 3: Titans, GO!**

"Who are you?" demanded Robin.

"What did you do to Raven?" Cyborg snarled.

"How did you know my name was Garfield?" Beast Boy asked confusedly, scratching his head.

"Ah, Frostbite, possibly kicked her in the kidney, and had no idea, I feel truly sorry for you," replied Frostbite caustically to each teen in turn. "Now if you would be so kind as to release me…"

"Not going to happen." Robin interrupted sternly.

Frostbite sighed rather tiredly, with an air of exasperated finality. "You people sound like a broken record, but I don't have to suffer through it." With a grunt, he ripped through Robin's net like paper and got back into a fighting stance.

"Cyborg, help Raven. Beast Boy, help me bring him in. Titans, GO!" Robin yelled, leading the charge against the intimidating cryomancer, who was already firing ice-balls so fast they were leaving huge dents and cracks on the walls upon impact.

Robin drew out his extendable bo-staff and started to swat some of the ones headed his way. Beast Boy morphed into a rabbit and easily dodged the incoming projectiles.

Robin leaped into the air and threw an explosive disc to blind Frostbite, but Frostbite simply froze the disc in mid-air, and blocked Robin's bo-staff as it swung toward his head with his right glove, and gave Robin a left handed jab to the stomach, followed by a block of ice that sent him flying across the room, and (luckily for Robin) just missing Cyborg. Beast Boy resumed the attack in the form of a grizzly bear, swiping his huge claws at his new enemy, which Frostbite parried with the stolen bo-staff, which was beginning to bend under the strain.

"You okay, Robin?" asked Cyborg.

"I've had worse." Robin said, creaking his neck. "How are you, Raven?"

"Peachy." she replied sarcastically.

"No, she's got a fractured rib and she's badly bruised in the side." Cyborg said seriously.

"Where's Starfire?" Raven asked. "Shouldn't she be here?"

"Yeah, but Jack Frost over there froze a guard solid in the foyer, she's trying to thaw him out." Cyborg answered.

Suddenly, there was a yelp, and a green wolf slammed into the wall beside Raven, morphing back into the green pest she knew.

"Dude, where do all these wackos keep coming from?" Beast Boy whined dazedly.

"Probably the same place you came from, grass stain" Cyborg smirked, powering up his sonic canon.

"Upper Lamumba?"

"What?"

Frostbite interrupted the conversation with an ice beam that Cyborg countered with his canon. Cyborg then launched several missiles from compartments in his arms and legs, intending to home in on and hit Frostbite in a wide arc while he was occupied with the sonic canon.

Instead, the missiles went way off course and blew up the vault door with a deafening bang, showering the hallway with shrapnel.

Cyborg and Frostbite promptly stopped their attacks, staring comically at the gaping hole. Cyborg stood there with a look that clearly read "WHAT THE HELL!?" Frostbite on the other hand wasn't wasting any time, and showered the Titans with snow and hail before sprinting into the vault.

One by one, the four heroes poked their heads out of the snow, three looking questioningly at the dumbstruck Cyborg.

"Cyborg, what just happened?" Robin asked quietly. "Those missiles should have hit HIM, NOT THE DAMN DOOR!"

"I'm not sure," Cyborg answered, looking disappointed that for once his technology had failed him. "Could be possible that heat seeker missiles can't lock onto him." Though he couldn't see how that was possible. _How could Frostbite have no heat signature, unless he was…_

"Doesn't matter" Beast Boy said, pointing at the vault. "Looks like he just got locked in."

Sure enough, the second trap vault door had activated and hit the floor with a concluding sounding thud.

"I doubt that will hold him for long," Cyborg said, running a scan. "This door isn't electrified."

"Get ready," was all that Robin said. Robin readied a flashbang disc, Cyborg aimed his sonic canon at he door, Beast Boy prepared to transform and Raven managed to regain enough concentration to produce some shields if the need arose.

An unearthly roar was faintly heard through the thick steel door; even so, it made Beast Boy's neck hairs stand on end due to his heightened senses. No natural human being could make suck an indescribable noise. He wondered if Frostbite _was _human.

Robin noticed that ice was beginning to form on the door, spreading insidiously all over the door and the surrounding walls and floor, and signalled his teammates to step back.

Sure enough, the door seemed to self-explode into thousands of frozen metal fragments. The cold blast of air chilled the titans to the bone, but they held their ground regardless.

Out stepped the icy wraith, who looked absolutely murderous, without a shred of mercy.

"Out of my way," Frostbite roared, punching Cyborg away like a rag doll. Beast Boy turned into a raptor, but Frostbite grabbed him by the throat and tossed him bodily at Cyborg, who had attempted to get back up. Raven stopped Beast Boy by encasing him in dark energy while Robin threw the flashbang disc at Frostbite's feet. Frostbite promptly countered by freezing the disc solid and crushing it underfoot. Robin threw another disc that exploded into another net that Frostbite flash-froze and smashed through, but failed to see the two other discs that Robin had already thrown.

The resulting explosion showered that hallway with rubble and fragmented metal. An avalanche of dust and smoke swallowed the Titans and obscured Robin's vision, so he wasn't sure that his strategy had worked.

The seconds passed by slowly and tensely, the hallway now eerily silent.

The smoke finally cleared, revealing four very sore, grime encrusted teenagers and a hallway that looked like a cross between a war-zone and a plumbing job gone wrong.

But Frostbite was no where to be found.

Robin was alarmed at this, having two theories to explain the villain's absence. One, he was hiding, which Robin was quick to dismiss. There was nowhere to hide in the hallway, and returning to the vault would serve no further purpose other than to trap himself into a corner.

Robin's eyes widened, realising just where Frostbite had gone.

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Starfire had finished thawing out the guard, who was now shivering uncontrollably (and clinging to her as if his life depended on it) when she heard a loud explosion deep inside the building. Starfire started, about to go to the aid of her friends, when Frostbite ran back into the atrium, still smoking from the blast but otherwise unhurt.

Starfire gingerly extracted the quivering wreck from her and faced her new opponent.

Frostbite stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the orange skinned alien in the purple mini-skirt.

"For the love of… how many of you people are there!?" Frostbite snapped in exasperation.

"Um, just one, but on Tamaran there are many millions" Starfire answered, not quite getting the drift. "Now please do not move, and you shall not be harmed."

Frostbite looked very perplexed at Starfire's rather random answer, and even more so that she expected him to just give up on getting away. _Boy, does she have another thing coming_.

Frostbite made the first move, shooting an ice beam hoping to freeze her and make a quick getaway. But Starfire, although she was startled, was just as quick to fire a starbolt that melted right through the ice beam and hit a shocked Frostbite in the shoulder.

Although weakened from all the ice it melted through, it was still enough to punch a hole in his jacket and singe his shirt. Frostbite groaned and staggered back from the burning sensation in his shoulder. He knew he was in trouble and had to get away fast, however shameful it was to fail at his objective. But with five superpowered teens all ganging up on him in his weakened condition, he wouldn't stand a chance.

Frostbite shot a beam right onto the floor, creating a huge pillar of ice, and shattered it, sending the projectiles at Starfire in the hopes of distracting her long enough to get away. But Starfire rapidly fired dozens of starbolts with such ferocity and accuracy that Frostbite had to dodge several of them himself even as he made for the exit. Her face was contorted with unrestrained fury and her eyes glowed an intimidating radioactive green.

_Just a few seconds ago she looked as if she couldn't hurt a fly, _Frostbite thought. _Now she looks ready to start World War Three. But enough's enough; these so-called heroes will get their come-uppance along with the one who mislead me, but not today. _Frostbite reached the exit and created an ice-wall to obscure Starfire's view.

By the time Starfire smashed through, he was already gone.

Starfire quickly got out her communicator.

"Starfire to Robin."

"Starfire, are you alright? Where's Frostbite?"

"I am undamaged, but Frostbite has escaped."

Robin looked relieved. "It doesn't matter. Raven has been injured and we need to regroup and get some info on our new enemy."

Starfire was aghast. "Friend Raven is injured? We must get her to the infirmary!"

"It's not that bad," Raven protested in the background.

"Then why are you leaning on me?" questioned Beast Boy.

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That's all for now. I'm hoping to add in a few new villains along with some familiar ones like Slade (though I personally like Deathstroke the Terminator better). Anyway, _au revior, sayonara, haere ra, _goodbye.


	4. The worst song in the world

Thanks for the reviews, guess that means I'll keep going.

Frostbite seems real nasty, but trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. It's only the beginning.

Oh, and if you have any suggestions for the story, put them up on reviews and I'll look into them. On to Chapter Four.

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**Chapter 4: The worst song in the world**

Raven was rather irritated. Okay, sure she had a fractured bone and dark black and blue bruising, but a few nights of sleep, relaxation and meditation, and she'd be right as rain. She thought that the others were overreacting; Starfire most of all, her arms bristling with bandages, bottles and other Tamaranian cures that she was sure would finish her off if the ailment didn't.

"Really, I'll be fine." Raven said patiently on the hospital bed back in Titans Tower, but her left eyebrow twitched all the same.

"Sorry Raven, but we need to check if any of your organs were damaged. You'll have to stay here for at least a day just so we can be sure nothing's wrong." Cyborg replied from the monitor.

"Frostbite did hit you rather hard." Beast Boy added.

"Please, friend Raven, try some of this Gloptark soup. It will have you springing back in the jiffy!" Starfire exclaimed happily from behind a large bowl of what looked like…oh….umm…ugghhh…oh my…holy crud…

You don't want to know.

"Okay. I'm cured. I'm going to my room." Raven said quickly, ripping off the blanket and attempting to jump off the hospital bed. But she let out a yell of agony as she tried to sit up.

"No. You're not." Robin said sternly from the doorway, back from research. "You stay right where you are."

Raven sighed in defeat and banged her head against her pillow.

"Did you find anything out about Frostbite?" Cyborg asked.

"Nothing yet." Robin replied angrily. "Whoever he is, he's someone new. And it gets weirder."

"How so?"

"He broke into a high security vault, pounded half the guards, but he didn't take anything."

"Perhaps our presence dissuaded him?" Starfire reasoned.

"I don't think so. He was willing to take on all of us. Speaking of which, we have another problem."

"What's the problem?" Cyborg asked.

"We should have handled Frostbite easily. We've beaten Slade, Brother Blood, Trigon and the Brotherhood of Evil, yet when we fought against Frostbite…"

"We had our butts handed back to us, I know." Cyborg finished. "But the point of that is to learn from our mistakes…"

"Which can cost lives." Robin interrupted angrily. "If you recall, a person nearly froze to death today!"

"Starfire thawed him out."

"He's still in hospital suffering from hypothermia! And Raven, what were you thinking? You went right after Frostbite without waiting for us!"

"A woman was about to have her fingers snapped off," Raven said, looking ever more bothered and incensed by Robin's display of angst, "and he was breaking into the bank. I was the closest person on patrol in the area, so I intervened. You'd rather I hadn't?"

Robin paled. "I'm sorry, I got carried away. But my point is that… I feel as if we failed everyone today. That I failed everyone. We just went in after him split up hopelessly with no plan of action, and not only did he get away, but you got hurt as well."

"This is a risky job. We're bound to get a few scrapes." Raven said calmly.

Robin nodded grimly "But I think we were way out of practice. I'll schedule some training sessions for tomorrow. But you're going to stay out of them until you're better."

"Agreed."

Beast Boy groaned loudly. He had a bad feeling that he wouldn't be seeing the Gamestation in a long time.

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Frostbite entered the dank, dark room and collapsed onto a moth-eaten couch. He took a few deep, ragged breaths to calm himself and go over all that had happened rationally.

He had been an impatient fool, he admitted it. He had just barged into the bank, bared his teeth and had been beaten back by a bunch of damn teenagers (of all things). He had not done his homework, had not expected the unexpected and had paid the price of failure.

But what really rubbed salt into his wounds was his source; he would soon pay dearly for this debacle.

He had to admit though, those teenagers intrigued him. He would be sure to find out all he could about them. He didn't want to make the same mistakes again.

Frostbite got up after a few minutes and took a look at his surroundings. Apart from the sofa, there wasn't much else there. Just a desk covered with papers with a laptop, a plain wooden chair, a chest of drawers and a doorway leading to a mouldy bathroom. The windows were boarded up. It wasn't five-star accommodation, but Frostbite didn't care. He had to hide somewhere.

Frostbite headed for the shower, but felt a pain in the side of his head. That damn kid, that Robin, had hammered him with those odd-shapped grenades. The orange one, Star Fire, had grazed him with one of those energy blasts.

He went to the mirror to take a look. He hated doing this, his reflection always reminding, always taunting. He grabbed the scarf-like mask, and pulled…

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"Hey Raven, I know what'll cheer you up!" Beast Boy smiled.

"Why would I want to be cheery, I'm stuck in the infirmary with you." Raven said grumpily. Beast Boy had taken it upon himself to pester Raven on her road to recovery while the others respected her wishes to stay away. _Talk about kicking me while I'm down _Raven thought bitterly.

Beast Boy pretended to ignore her. "I got a special song that always cheers me up when I'm down! And trust me, it's funny."

Raven groaned. "Your brand of humour is not funny."

"We'll see." Beast Boy said, grinning like a madman. He pulled a disc out of his pocket and inserted it into the radio beside her bed.

What followed could only be described as two and a half minutes of torture:

_Hold a chicken in the air! Stick a deck-chair up your nose,_

_Buy a jumbo jet, and then bury all your clothes,_

_Paint your left knee green, then extract your wisdom teeth,_

_Form a string-quartet, and pretend your name is Keith._

Raven immediately hated the song (and Beast Boy's ridiculous dance moves), and promptly covered her ears. But the she swore she could feel the lyrics creep insidiously inside her brain:

_Skin yourself alive! Lean to speak Arapaho,_

_Climb inside a dog, and behead an Eskimo,_

_Eat a Renault-Four, wear salami in your ears,_

_Casserole your gran, disembowel yourself with spears!_

By now, Raven wished that Frostbite _had _finished her off so she wouldn't be subject to this crime against music, and dumped her pillow over her face. The next line kind of summed up the song really:

_The disco is vibrating, the sound is loud and grating,_

_It's truly nauseating, let's do the dance again!_

"FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY AND SACRED, NO!!" Raven screamed, her eyes glowing a ghostly white. The radio (and half the infirmary) then exploded, showering Beast Boy in glass and various medical paraphernalia in the middle of what looked like the Egyptian dance.

Beast Boy emerged from the mountain of supplies to find Raven propped up on the bed, surrounded by creepy black tentacles. The shadows in the room also seemed to to advancing on Beast Boy, which freaked him out. Raven spoke in a deep, ethereal voice:

"Beast Boy, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but so help me, if I hear that song _ever_ again, I _will _send you to another dimension. Clear?"

Beast Boy gulped, and nodded. "Crystal."

The tentacles disappeared, and Raven returned to normal, rubbing her temples. "If you really want to help me, bring me a cup of tea. My nerves are shattered at the moment."

"Sure thing. I'll be right back." Beast Boy said, his smile returning. He walked out of the room.

Raven sighed, and hit her head against the pillow. She _really _hated the infirmary now. And Beast Boy was often the worst person to help a person recover. _Except for Starfire_, Raven thought, shuddering at the multitude of horrific "cures" at her disposal. _Though, it isn't fair of me to criticise Beast Boy, he does try his best._

Suddenly, as if trying to change her mind, the radio crackled back to life for a moment, but it was enough to scar her memory for life:

_Now you've heard it once, your brain will spring a leak,_

_And though you hate this song, you'll be humming it for weeks!_

"DAMN YOU, SPITTING IMAGE!"

_------------------------------------------------------------_

The song is called "The Chicken Song." Yes, it's a real song made by a British sketch show that satirised all the crappy summer holiday songs that were in vogue in the 1980's, especially those made by Black Lace. It was voted one of the worst songs of the 1980's; boy, talk about not getting the joke.


	5. The Back Alley Backstabber

Kia ora, I'm back with another chapter. Thank you for the reviews so far, I'll get this story onto the real deal ASAP. I also just realised that I didn't do the customary disclaimer for the last two chapters, so allow me to remedy that:

**DISCLAIMER FOR CHAPTERS 3-5: **I do not own Teen Titans. At all. Never will. But Frostbite is mine!

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**Chapter 5: The Back Alley Backstabber**

Frostbite traversed the dark alleyways of night-time Jump City with caution. His contact was here somewhere, and he had to stay alert. Not for muggers; the last time a mugger had tried to knife him, the hapless thug had been left in a dumpster cradling a broken wrist. It was the contact he had to be weary of. Frostbite was cursing himself for even thinking of trusting the slimy snake; he had deliberately fed him false information, and had given bad intelligence on the bank's defences.

After an hour of hiking through the deserted alleys, Frostbite came to a stop.

"I know you are here. Show yourself!" Frostbite growled.

"I saw the whole scene at the bank. Very sloppy. I expected better than that." replied a silky smooth, menacing voice, hinting at disdain.

"I don't care what you expect! You lied to me, Deathstroke, and I do not tolerate liars! Who were those kids? Where are the files? Why did you set me up?"

Deathstroke emerged from the shadows in front of Frostbite. He wore a metallic mask that was split in half: pitch black on the left side and poisonous orange on the right, where the only eye-hole in the mask was. He was dressed like some kind of futuristic commando in cybernetic armour with several pouches filled with all kinds of weapons and gadgets around his waist. Even his stride suggested ex-military, which Frostbite detested.

He hated the military.

Deathstroke answered smoothly, condescendingly:

"They are a group of rather talented young teenagers called the Teen Titans. To be honest, I don't know where the files are. I only wanted to see what you were capable of. And I am very disappointed."

Frostbite's anger grew; ice was already creeping its way along the ground. "Enough of this charade. You are going to tell me everything you know. Now. Or we will have a confrontation, which I will win, and you will spend the last moments of your life as a human popsicle!"

Deathstroke chuckled. "A lot of people have tried to finish me. All of them have failed. You will not fare much better; you could barely hold your own against a group of mere teenagers."

Frostbite's eyes narrowed, his fists now covered in a hard layer of ice. "Very well, Death-Wish, I will just have to prove you wrong."

Frostbite aimed a punch at Deathstroke's face, which Deathstroke easily blocked by grabbing his hand in a vice-like grip, breaking the protective layer of ice. Deathstroke's other fist slammed into Frostbite's chest so fast that he couldn't even see it coming.

Frostbite collided with a dumpster, leaving a massive dent, spraying garbage that rained down onto the street. Deathstoke then threw a grenade right in front of Frostbite, exploding and covering the street in refuse and thick smoke.

Deathstroke eyed the scene emotionlessly, pitilessly. "So much for turning me into a human popsicle."

"I'm getting to that."

Before Deathstroke could respond, Frostbite shot out of the smoke, tackling him head-on and smashing them both through a brick wall and into a kitchen where a family of three was having dinner.

Understandably, they all freaked out when two masked men bulldozed through their wall and proceeded to try and kill each other with their eating utensils.

"JESUS CHRIST!" exclaimed the husband, ducking for cover when Frostbite missed Deathstroke and demolished the cupboards with an ice blast.

"COOL!" screamed the six year old boy, still seated at the table when Deathstroke held a steak knife above Frostbite's head whilst he was pinned down on the table.

The wife simply fainted.

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"Unit 73, we have a report of a domestic disturbance on 7th Avenue. Investigate, over?"

"Copy that headquarters, we'll check it out. Over." answered the officer in the police car.

The officer turned to the rookie in the passenger seat. "OK, rookie, we'll be there in a minute. Just let me handle everything and observe how the master does it."

The rookie nodded. He was relatively young (barely into his twenties) wearing the standard issue blue American police uniform, but it didn't quite seem to suit him. The uniform looked two sizes bigger than him and he had his head down, as if he was trying not to be noticed. He wasn't the most confident policeman on the force. The officer was the complete opposite: he looked as if he could handle any situation, and often bragged about it. The raw recruit felt real low. How could he compete against this shining self-righteous example of the law?

He pulled to a stop just outside the apartment building and both men stepped out of the car.

"Whoo-eee, that's some rukus!" exclaimed the officer. The screaming, yelling and sound of expensive furniture being smashed could be heard a mile away. The rookie was beginning to seriously regret joining the force.

"Alrighty, kid, just watch what I do, and you'll be doing this job like a pro in no time!"

"I dunno, sir. This fight sounds real bad. Shouldn't we wait for back-up?"

"HA! I don't need back-up! I'm a first-rate mediator and I have a black-belt in karate! And if none of those work…" he trailed on whilst walking toward the door. The rookie wasn't so sure. Many of the things the officer described included a lot of cases where a lot of people got hurt: by him.

So much for Protecting and Serving.

The officer rapped smartly on the door, but it was doubtful that he was heard because of the uproar. So he just swung the door open and boldly marched inside, the door closing behind him, leaving the terrified rookie outside.

Barely a second later, the door slammed open again. This time, the officer was white as a sheet, screaming "JAYSUS CHRIST!" and jumping headfirst into the dumpster opposite the door as a hail of knives and icicles rained down like bullets on the spot where the overly macho officer had just been.

He stuck his head out of the garbage at the incredulous rookie and said:

"Back-up? We don't need back-up, we need the bleedin' army!"

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Frostbite and Deathstroke had spent the better half of ten minutes beating the stuffing out of one another (and the apartment) and neither had gotten very far. Frostbite found this city more and more infuriating by the minute. It was as if the city was conspiring against him or something. First with those kids, and now with a homocidal mercenary. What next, an oozing pile of sludge?

Deathstroke now thought that perhaps he had underestimated the cryomancer. Even Robin had not fought this long against him and still put up a terrific fight the first time they fought. The master strategist knew that he was in trouble.

Both combatants had taken a hammering. Deathstroke's mask was cracked (but not enough to reveal his face), his suit was torn up when Frostbite had started to shoot icicles at him and several of his pouches were ripped off. Frostbite's mask was still intact despite Deathstroke's grenade blast, but his jacket was nearly gone with only the sleeves hanging on by a thread. A few tears in the polo shirt revealed some chalk-white skin, but nothing much other than that whoever he was, Frostbite was very thin. Deathstroke wondered where all his energy and strength was coming from.

The two now grappled in the ruins of the lounge, covered in the remains of what was once spaghetti bolognese.

"This is getting you nowhere fast. Just tell me what I need to know, and I will spare you." grunted Frostbite.

"Your generosity is overwhelming." Deathstroke replied sarcastically. "But perhaps we could make a deal…"

"No deals. I don't believe in second chances, mercenary."

"Don't be a fool. I admit, when you first entered my city I had a few misgivings. Your methods are crude and brutal, yet pragmatic. Allied with me, we could be a potent force."

Suddenly, as if Deathstroke had morbidly offended him, Frostbite let out an enraged snarl and overpowered the tactician, forcing him to his knees.

Deathstroke let out a muffled yell of pain as Frostbite began to bend back his hands.

"You cannot fool me! You intend to use me as a weapon to achieve your own goals. How utterly predictable and disgusting. I will not be anyone's pet!"

Deathstroke tried to break free but in his current position it was hopeless. He had a hold of both his hands, and Frostbite kept up the pressure so that he couldn't move his legs. He knew what would happen next: he would freeze him alive while he still had him pinned down.

Frostbite got ready to finish him off, when…

"DUDES, SLADE'S TOTALLY GETTING HIS BUTT KICKED!"

Frostbite and Deathstroke both looked through the sizable hole that they had made to find Beast Boy, Starfire, Cyborg and Robin standing there in the kitchen. Frostbite naturally wasn't happy to see them again.

"Ah, great, the Goonies are back!"

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Reviews, please. I got a good idea from KaminariRyuu, but I might just save that one for another story. I think I didn't quite do this chapter right and that I introduced Slade in too soon. By the way, Frostbite refers to Slade only as Deathstroke, the Titans call him Slade.

Did you know that Deathstroke the Terminator predates Arnold Shwarzenegger's Terminator by two years? PLAGIARISM!


	6. Bad News

So far I've only had a few reviews, but all of them were positive so I guess it's okay. I've decided on a quick update but I might be a little while before I get back. I have a lot to do and I have to think the next part of the story through.

**DISCLAIMER FOR THE REST OF THE STORY: **I don't own Teen Titans. Period. I hate repeating the obvious so I stuck this up.

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**Chapter 6: Bad News**

Robin couldn't believe his eyes. Neither could the others. Here was Slade, their deadliest adversary, who had enslaved Robin, turned Terra against them and acted as the messenger of the apocalypse, now on his knees, humiliated and defeated at the hands of a virtual unknown. Frostbite didn't seem to realise the gravity of the situation though; he had already flung Slade to the side to prepare for another melee.

"I'll be back for you, Deathstroke. Just as soon as I teach these kids not to meddle in my business."

"Uh, dude, who's Deathstroke?" asked Beast Boy, scratching his head (Frostbite wondered if he had dandruff).

"He's referring to Slade." replied Robin, eyes narrowed.

"Slade? You actually told them your real name?" Frostbite said disbelievingly. "Some world class merc you are."

Slade got back to his feet, enraged. "I will have your skin for this!"

With that, he drew out his bo-staff and got back into a combat stance.

Frostbite wasn't impressed. "I don't have time for this nonsense. I already had that tripe from the traffic light over there."

Robin ignored the comment. "Beast Boy, you help me with Slade. Cyborg, Starfire, take Frostbite. Titans, GO!"

Slade knew that he was in deep trouble now. He was injured from Frostbite's attack and now had to take on two of the only Titans who had managed to best him in single combat (with robotic drones of course). But he didn't panic. He never panicked. He knew from past experience that panic lead to certain defeat. One of the reasons why he was so good at what he did. Ever the opportunist, he could work the situation to his advantage.

Frostbite couldn't let the Titans get Deathstroke before he did. The man had extensive knowledge of the city and these little hooligans that he needed in order to complete his business in this wretched city. The sooner he left, the better.

Robin cursed his rotten luck. Instead of fighting one serious bad guy, they were fighting two, without Raven to help them. Once again they were split up. It was obvious that Slade and Frostbite didn't get along at all, but in a way it complicated matters. They all had conflicting motives, so the fight could easily degenerate into a three-sided free for all.

Frostbite fired an ice beam at Deathstroke and sprayed Cyborg and Starfire with icicles. Deathstroke dodged it and swerved around to trip up Robin and Beast Boy in a single swipe with the staff, which Robin jumped over, and began to parry with his staff while Beast Boy took advantage of any openings in Slade's defence.

Cyborg held up his metallic arm to counter the icicles and attempted to ram Frostbite, but missed. Starfire charged up her hands and started shooting her starbolts. Frostbite was careful to avoid them this time. Those things stung like hell.

"Hey Frosty, eat this!" yelled Cyborg, powering up and firing his sonic canon.

_What did he just call me? _Frostbite fumed as he swerved to the left to avoid the sonic blast. _I'll give him frosty._

Frostbite then jumped onto Cyborg's shoulders, his left foot covered in a thick layer of ice, and kicked him in the side of the head that was still mostly human, making Cyborg spin on the spot before crashing down to the ground.

One down, three to go.

Starfire let loose her unbridled fury and showered Frostbite with starbolts. Frostbite countered with a massive cold blast that ripped down what was left of the apartment, quenched the starbolts and sent Starfire flying into the wall. Frostbite pressed his advantage by firing a large ice beam at Starfire, freezing her within at least six inches of ice. Payback for scorching him last time.

Two down, two to go.

Slade managed to kick away Robin and jump over Beast Boy (who was a bull) and attempted to get away. Frostbite shot a beam onto the floor to try and trip him, but Deathstroke made a leap that would have left an Olympic athelete in tears and made it onto the street.

"Another time, Titans. And you, Frostbite. I'll be watching you. Very closely."

Before anyone could do anything, Slade set off a flashbang grenade in the apartment, blinding everyone while he made his escape.

Once the brightness was gone, Frostbite gave Robin a black look.

"Oh, real smart move, traffic light. I had him, but you just _had_ to play the hero. Do you feel proud that you let that slime get away? Now I'm going to be stuck here until I get some decent info. Unless you're willing to donate?"

Robin scowled. "We don't negotiate with criminals."

Frostbite snorted. "I'm no criminal. You are for getting in my way of setting things right."

"What are you planning? Espionage? Fraud? Mass murder?"

"You don't seriously expect me to answer that, do you?"

"No."

"Then why bother?"

"To distract you."

Suddenly, Beast Boy emerged behind Frostbite as a gorilla and grabbed his arms while Robin charged with the bo-staff, aiming for the head for a quick knock-out. But Frostbite managed to slam the back of his head into Beast Boy's mouth, forcing him to let go and Frostbite got out of the way in time for Robin to swing his staff and accidentally hit the green gorilla across the head.

Beast Boy morphed back, seeing stars (and probably missing a few teeth) with a dopey grin on his face.

"I wuv black birrdz." he mumbled before collapsing.

Frostbite mocked Robin. "Wow Boy Blunder, I guess you don't need me or Deathstroke to lose in a fight. You can do it all yourself."

Robin gave a yell and charged again, blind with anger. Frostbite just stood there and at the last second punched Robin in the face too quick for Robin to see.

Robin flew into the ruined couch into a sitting position, semi-conscious.

"Enjoy your nap. I have bigger fish to fry."

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Robin woke up a few minutes later to see a total disaster. Both villains had gotten away, but to really add insult to injury, they had gotten their butts whopped big time. Starfire had broken free of her icy prison by heating up her body with energy while Cyborg and Beast Boy were only now just getting up.

"Friends, are we all alright?" asked Starfire.

"I'm good." replied Cyborg, cricking his neck. "How 'bout you, grass stain?"

"I'm gonna be feeling this in the morning." winced Beast Boy, feeling his chin and cheek.

"Robin, you hit hard!"

Robin got to his feet. "I apologise. But now I don't know what to do anymore. First Frostbite, now Slade! Everything we worked for over the last six months is falling like a pack of cards!"

The officer poked his head fearfully through the hole in the wall. "Are they gone?"

Robin sighed. "Yes, they're gone."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir. Very much!" cried the officer, falling to the ground and kissing Robin's feet. "They woulda killed me for sure!"

"Sir, you're embarassing me in front of these cool heroes." complained the rookie, showing a little more self-restraint. "Thanks for all your help, we were in real trouble there."

Robin nodded. "Do you know anything that could help us catch these guys?"

"Sorry. I'm probably more in the dark about this mess than you are."

Robin sighed. It was worth a try.

"OH MY GOD, MY HOUSE! MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE! WHAT THE HELL'S THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE?! WHATTA… GIDGAA… AHHH... AHAHAHAHAHA!" wailed the father in the living room.

"Does this mean we can get a swimming pool now?" asked the six year old, eyeing the huge puddles of melted ice.

The wife woke up, took a good, wide-eyed look around her, and fainted again.

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"_Our top story: The city's newest supervillain calling himself Frostbite was last seen fighting with Jump City's public enemy number one, Slade, in a residential property, endangering the lives of three people. The Teen Titans arrived on the scene and managed to restore calm to the area; however, the home was damaged beyond repair by the latest fight, and both villains managed to escape. We had Officer McLusky issue this report:_

"_We have the situation under control, the family has been evacuated. But those punks were lucky that I wasn't around to give 'em a good hiding!" _

"_If I recall, you were hiding in a dumpster waiting it out." _retorted a young policeman at his side.

"_SHUT UP! You're not helping!"_

"_In other news, gang violence in Jump City has escalated once again, endangering dozens of lives. New weapons have also started appearing on the streets, claimed by eye-witnesses to be of military origin. There are also rumours of a new arms dealer outcompeting the local competition. The FBI are investigating the case._

"_The USS _Goliath _has docked at Jump City Drydocks amid massive crowds. It is the largest heavy battleship in the US Navy…"_

Raven switched off the main screen in the living room and turned to the others. She had recovered remarkably quickly thanks to her improved healing powers that she had been honing over the last month. Another night and she'd be back to open another can of the butt-whoop, as Starfire would put it.

"This is bad news. If Frostbite was able to overpower Slade, then we're in serious trouble."

Robin was troubled by this turn of events too. But he still couldn't quite believe it himself. "Perhaps he just surprised him? Caught him off guard?"

That argument seemed just as unlikely. Slade was _never _caught off guard.

Starfire hated to see everyone look so down. "Please, friends, we must not let these defeats in battle get the better of us."

Cyborg agreed. "It could have been worse Robin. A whole lot worse."

Robin got up, and headed for the door.

"I'm afraid that it _is_ about to get a whole lot worse." He said as the sliding doors closed behind him.

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Reviews, please. I love feedback. And any suggestions will be appreciated as well.

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now! Damn, I sound like Caesar Romero (shudder).


	7. Interrogations

Gidday, I'm back with another chapter, where the plot thickens. I had a lot of fun creating this next guy, hope you like him (or hate him). By the way, I updated my profile, so if you're one of those people who take a disturbing interest in their authors (just kidding), go take a look. This chapter is considerably longer than the others for a reason. Enjoy.

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**Chapter 7: Interrogations**

Frostbite had his head in his hands on the desk back at his hideout, breathing heavily. Despite appearances when facing the Titans and Deathstroke, he had been sapped of most of his energy in that colossal waste of time at the apartment. He was powerful (no use denying it), but he had limits. And that scrap could have been the end of him.

His quarry had gotten away and threatened repercussions. Those brats were now more than likely to redouble their efforts to thwart him. Worst of all, he had no idea on where to go from here. Deathstroke had been his meal ticket to his goal, and the Titans had robbed him of it.

Frostbite turned on the small television next to him that he had grabbed the other day. Since he couldn't just waltz into a store and buy things because of his appearance, he had to be sneaky and just steal it. He had no use for money. He was a survivor without peer in his honest opinion, and those survivor instincts had served him well throughout his whole, sorry existence. Ever since…

Frostbite's travel through memory lane was cut short by the news bulletin. He always watched the news religiously for anything, however small, that could come up. Frostbite watched the report on his battle with grave interest (however, the police officer amused him slightly). For most of the programme, he had little interest, and got changed into some spare clothes of the same style, and tinkered with the weapons he had salvaged from the battle. He had to admit, Deathstroke was quite ingenious. Smoke grenades, detpacks, extendable bo-staffs (one could even fire energy bolts) and other things that amazed him. How could all this stuff fit in such little pouches?

But then something caught his eye. A small anouncement concerning STAR Labs:

"_STAR Labs has perfected an anti-freeze formula after months of frustrated efforts. The leader of the project, scientist Robert Walls, was instrumental to the success of the project. It is hoped that the new anti-freeze will not only be a stepping stone to make cold-related injuries such as frostbite a thing of the past, but will be mankind's first step toward advanced cryogenics and immortality."_

Frostbite couldn't believe his luck. And the stupidity of Mr. Walls. That broadcast just advertised his presence just when Frostbite was in town.

Well, STAR Labs had better batten down the hatches. A blizzard was about to hit them like a ton of bricks.

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Down at the docks, a man in ragged, torn leather street clothes approached one of the many abandoned warehouses on the waterfront. He knocked on the back door, and waited a few seconds. A panel slid open at the top of the door, where two black eyes regarded him suspiciously.

"Password?" the eyes inquired.

"Vyacheslav Molotov." replied the man.

"State your business."

"I heard this was the place to get some decent weapons, and my pockets are lined with green."

The panel slid shut, and after some fumbling at the locks, the door swung open.

The man walked inside, and the door closed behind him. He looked with surprise at what he saw.

Weapons. Thousands of them. And not the ordinary junk you usually got on the streets like switchblades and Saturday Night Specials. M16 assault rifles lined the walls. Open crates were full of fragmentation grenades. There were even rocket launchers on the far side of the warehouse.

The place was definitely loaded. There were heavily armed guards everywhere that made the man uneasy. They were no street punks. These people wore black military fatigues with visored helmets and were armed with SMGs (Sub-Machine-Guns), M16s and Kalashnikov rifles.

The man was lead upstairs to the office, where there was even more heavy duty ordnance. At the very back was a desk with a man behind it flanked by two more guards armed with laser rifles. The ragged man couldn't see the man behind the desk very well because the lights were dimmed, but he assumed he was the arms dealer that everyone was talking about.

"Good evening, comrade." the dealer spoke out in a heavy robotic Russian accent, but there was more to his tone than that. The sentence seemed to have a double purpose, as if he wished the visitor anything but a good evening. That really creeped the man out, but he tried to maintain a tough look.

"Evenin'. I wanna buy a few guns for my homies, but I dunno what the best ones are. So I'd like your help…"

"You can drop the charade, you are not fooling anyone." interrupted the dealer harshly.

The man looked uncertainly at the shadow.

"What charade?"

The dealer reclined on his chair. "You are Special Agent Terence Day of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, you have a wife by the name of Elena Day, your child's name is Brandon Day, you live at number 45 Yew Cresent, your social security number is 23840045 and you have adopted this pathetic disguise to infiltrate my organisation and feed information to your superiors." He stated the facts emotionlessly, precisely.

Terence looked like a deer in the headlights. "How the hell did you know all this?" he demanded hoarsely.

"I have…connections." the dealer said simply. Terence knew he would never get a straight answer. He was in no position to demand anything; the guards were already forcing him to the floor.

The dealer looked at him thoughtfully. "Send him downstairs for processing. I will finish him later."

Terence attempted to break free, but one of the guards struck him viciously with the butt of the rifle, and dragged him off, bleeding in the side of the head.

The dealer turned to switch on the overhead television screen to watch the news concerning Frostbite. He had a personal interest in the cryomancer. After all, they were _old friends_. He chuckled at the feeble efforts by the police and these so-called Titans to contain him. He would soon show them all how it was done.

Then came the STAR Labs article. The dealer sat there in shock. That fool! That idiot was going to ruin everything! He got up and moved toward the door. If Frostbite got there first…

Walls was about to crumble.

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Robin poured over the computer, looking for anything that could help track down Slade. He knew Frostbite was a problem, but Slade always took top priority. He had threatened the team and the city more times than he could count. But Slade's parting words reverberated in his head:

" _Another time, Titans. And you, Frostbite. I'll be watching you. Very closely."_

Robin's only lead to Slade this time was through Frostbite. Problem was, he still didn't know Frostbite's frame of mind (was he psychotic?), his goals or motivations, so he didn't know where he would strike next. All he knew was that Frostbite held no regard for the lives of civilians and left a trail of destruction in his wake. That alone was enough to warrant his take down by the Teen Titans.

Starfire entered the room looking concerned.

"Friend Robin, you have been sitting at your desk for hours without having any of Cyborg's delicious spaghetti and meatballs. Perhaps you should…"

"I'm fine, I'm not hungry." Robin replied without letting Starfire finish.

Starfire wasn't going to take no for an answer this time. Brooding in his room for too long was just unhealthy. "You have made no progress in finding Slade or the Frostbite. Please take a break. You may have an idea while having dinner."

Robin reluctantly agreed. There was currently too little to go on.

Beast Boy was making gagging noises in the lounge as the rest of the Titans ate, which really put Raven off.

"If you cannot stand to watch us eat real food, eat somewhere else." Raven snapped.

"No way, I'm watching TV." Beast Boy retorted.

"You are not watching TV. You are flicking through channels aimlessly and sounding as if you'll upchuck at any moment."

"Come on, man, can you go just five seconds without complaining about my cooking?" Cyborg said exasperatedly.

"Never! Do you know how many cows were slaughtered to make those meatballs?"

"Only one!"

"One is one too many! It's genocide I tell ya!"

"Genocide is the killing of a group of people, not animals!"

"Herbicide then. The killing of herbivores."

"That's the killing of plants!"

The argument could have continued pointlessly for hours but Raven decided to put an end to it. She telepathically lifted up their respective dinner plates, and shoved them in their faces.

"Just chew, swallow, and shut up." growled Raven.

Cyborg and Beast Boy gulped and nodded, their faces covered in meat sauce and tofu.

Suddenly, the alarm went off and the whole tower flashed red. Robin sprinted to the computer and checked it out.

"There's been a break in at STAR Labs. Titans, GO!"

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STAR Labs. The Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories. One of the world's leading research institutes. Founded by Garrison Slate, the chain of laboratories spread throughout the United States and the world was completely independent of any government or corporate interest that could corrupt the organisation to fulfill another groups agendas.

At least ideally. Although many in the organisation took great pains to ensure it never happened, nothing was ever perfect. Take the Chicago branch for example.

Robert Walls was still running through a few last minute tests on the anti-freeze at the West Jump City branch. He was excited about this miracle chemical, and not just for its obvious potential in medicine and Arctic survival. But he was less keen on telling how he had come up with it. He didn't want to go down that path again. But the thing about the past is that it often catches up with you.

Suddenly, the whole wall to his left self-destructed, sending Walls flying and shattering various vials filled with different chemical formulas, some beginning to eat through the metal floor. The alarms sounded and broke the still calm of the night.

Walls looked up to meet someone he had hoped to never see again.

"Hello, Walls. I'd like to have a word with you." Frostbite hissed coldly, grabbing Walls by the front of the lab coat and slamming him onto the table that gave way under the force.

"Frostbite! Oh, hell!"

"You should have been more cautious, Walls. But then again, you always were a greedy little pig. The value of that anti-freeze must be worth what? Millions? Tens of millions? Billions, perhaps?"

Walls was shaking. "Oh, hell! Holy, sweet mother of…"

"Language, Walls. You were always a foul mouthed swine as well." Frostbite paused, then bent down over the terrified scientist.

"You know exactly what I'm after. Tell me where my personal files are, and I won't make your head explode from flash-freezing."

Walls shook his head fervently. "I can't do that! They'll kill me!"

"I'll do it right now if you don't spill!"

Frostbite covered his hands in ice and punched a hole in the floor next to Walls' head to prove his point. The ice splinters scraped at his cheeks, making him cry out in pain.

"I'll talk!"

"Spit it out!"

"The files are at an abandoned warehouse on the docks of the city. It's now a base for the organisation. The files will be in the central computer. But it's armed to the teeth!"

"You had better be right about this. Just give me the directions."

"S…sure, it's to the southeast off the main motorway. You can't miss it."

"Thank you. That's all I needed to know."

Frostbite then pinned him to the wall and proceeded to freeze his feet and hands to the wall while Walls screamed.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU SAID YOU'D LET ME LIVE!"

"I am going to let you live. But first, I want to make an example of you."

"Let him go!"

Frostbite could recognise that self-righteous, angsty voice anywhere. He turned around to face Robin and the rest of the Titans, ready for another fight.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Breakfast Club." Frostbite said calmly.

"We're nothing like the Breakfast Club." Beast Boy argued.

"Sure you are. There's the Brain," he pointed at Robin, "the Athlete," pointing at Cyborg, "the Princess," pointing at Starfire, "the Criminal," pointing at Beast Boy, "and the Basketcase!"

"I'm the WHAT!?" spluttered Raven, eyes glowing a furious white.

"Dude, how am I a criminal?" protested Beast Boy.

"Probably referring to your sense of humour." chuckled Cyborg.

"HEY!"

"Titans, focus!" Robin snapped, "We can't let him get…"

Robin turned around to find that Frostbite had disappeared.

"…away."

The sound of a motorbike broke out into the night. The teens all rushed outside to see the rapidly retreating figure of Frostbite fading into the darkness.

"Sooo, is there a Plan B?" asked Beast Boy.

"Yeah. We know where he's going, so we'll have to follow him there. Cyborg, get the T-Car. Starfire, free the scientist. One way or another, this ends tonight!"

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After the Titans had left, Walls slid down into a sitting position on the floor. He wanted nothing more to do with Frostbite, or anti-freeze, or anything ever again. He was now determined to run away and start a new life under a new name. All things considered, it could have been worse.

"Good evening, Robert Walls." said a mechanical, Russian voice, sounding like the harbringer of death in the darkness.

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"Everybody, run! Seriously evil bad guy coming through!" called out Frostbite sarcastically to the soldiers at the warehouse. They fired at him of course, but they never really stood much of a chance against his ice beams, even with their machine guns. Frostbite's speed and reflexes far exceeded theirs.

After about ten minutes of fighting, the last soldier slid down against the hangar door, knocked unconscious by a thunderous punch to the head. Frostbite wasted no time in ripping down the door and advancing inside.

Walls hadn't been lying. There was enough weaponry here to start World Wars Three to Five. He would be sure to trash it afterwards. A few remaining goons armed with lasers tried to stop him from getting into the office, but all in vain. They were duly disarmed and frozen to the floor.

Once inside the office, Frostbite felt uneasy. And not just because of the Soviet flag hanging across the wall. It was almost as if he was being watched.

He made his way to the computer and started hacking. A skill he was getting very good at. To his disturbance, the codes were all in Russian. There was only one person that he knew that used Russian in encryption…

He quickly managed to break through the system's security and found what he was looking for. Learning Russian had turned out to be a good thing after all. Now was the moment of truth. Ever since he had emerged as Frostbite, much of his life before his transformation had been wiped clean, with only fragments remaining in his memory. But the monsters that had created him had saved some of his personal information in case it was needed to understand every little thing he did. He was after all, an experiment that had needed close tabs.

He downloaded the information onto a disk and put it into a case for safekeeping. As much as he wanted to look through it now, it wasn't safe here. He got up and prepared to leave…

"You aren't going anywhere." said a cold, calculated voice.

Frostbite turned around and was greeted with a fist to the face that sent him crashing into the computer, sparks flying. He got up and saw…

"Deathstroke."

"Hello, Frostbite. I'm here to even the score. Is this a bad time?"

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Sorry about the lack of detail in the fights, but I wanted to get through this. I'm promising the next chapter will be far more intense and interesting. Please give me some reviews, I'll be eternally grateful.


	8. Winter's Fury

Okay, Chapter 8 is another long chapter. And a bit of a warning: some of the scenes described are a little graphic (but nothing inappropriate). A thank you to KaminariRyuu for keeping up her reviews, I really appreciate it. Finally, Deathstroke going to be portrayed the way he was meant to be.

Get ready for a real fight!

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**Chapter 8: Winter's Fury**

Frostbite crashed through the office window and ducked for cover. An explosion then incinerated the office and sprayed the warehouse with glass. Hundreds of loud popping noises were heard as the ammunition in the office was set off by the heat of the blast.

Deathstroke walked calmly toward Frostbite, an M16 in hand.

"This place brings back memories." he said, coolly reloading the automatic weapon. "Back in the day when all you did was shoot first and ask questions later. A shame that times have changed. The world is no longer so simple."

Frostbite swiped a Kalashnikov from the rack and quickly loaded it up. He jumped around the corner and fired at Deathstroke, but the man's reflexes were amazing. Frostbite was certain that if given the opportunity, Deathstroke could catch bullets.

Deathstroke was quick to retaliate with a barrage of bullets that punched into the crate that Frostbite was hiding behind, spilling grenades all over the floor. Frostbite's eyes widened. He was lucky that they hadn't been set off. He picked several up, pulled the pins and threw them over in what he thought was Deathstroke's position. Several explosions blew up other grenade nests and completely destroyed the entire right side of the warehouse, letting the cold night sea breeze creep in.

"Nice try, but I'm up here."

Frostbite looked up from his sitting position to see Deathstroke leering over him, then kicking him in the chest through the remains of the crate. Frostbite's rifle clattered onto the floor. It didn't matter anyway. There was no besting Deathstroke at his own game. He was the ultimate super-soldier. So Frostbite did what he should have done at the beginning.

He fired several ice beams at Deathstroke who darted in and out of the aisles, retreating back to the far corner. Frostbite followed around the corner…

…to face Deathstroke armed with a rocket launcher.

"Oh, hell."

Deathstroke fired, and Frostbite narrowly dodged the rocket that gutted the other side of the warehouse. The guards that had been frozen to the floor had now freed themselves and were heading for the exit. The warehouse was now in flames and threatened to collapse on the both of them. Unless this ended now.

Frostbite charged with icy clubs on his hands and swung them at Deathstroke's face who dodged them and grabbed his right arm by the wrist and twisted it round behind his back.

Frostbite ignored the pain. He had suffered worse. He simply jumped backwards and slammed Deathstroke into a crate, forcing him to let go.

But the disc fell out of his pocket and clattered onto the cold stone floor amidst the flames. Frostbite quickly ran to retrieve it, but Deathstroke tackled him to the ground near the flames and tried to push his head into them.

"Tell me, what is on that disc?"

"Tell me who you ticked off to have your eye taken out."

Apparently Frostbite hit a raw nerve. Deathstroke nearly broke his neck with the force of his punch. But then Frostbite managed to get his feet under and kick Deathstroke off him.

Deathstroke landed on his feet next to the disk and snatched it. He took a good look at it, considering the pros and cons of keeping it, then crushed it between his fingers, the tiny plastic fragments tinkering onto the concrete.

Frostbite looked on in horror. His only link to what he had once been had been severed forever. Deathstroke simply stood there coldly, mocking him.

"Oops, was that important? So clumsy of me." He then stomped onto the remains.

Frostbite saw nothing but red for the next thirty seconds as he fell upon Deathstroke like a ton of bricks, catching him by surprise. The punches came so fast that Deathstroke's efforts to parry were useless. One punch then went right through his abdomen, the wires buzzing with electricity.

Wait, wires?

Frostbite ripped off Deathstroke's mask and was now face to face with a computer screen.

"Tsk, tsk, you should really keep your temper under control." drawled Deathstroke amidst what looked to be a gear factory in the screens background. It definitely wasn't anywhere near the warehouse.

"You're dead meat, Rambo." Frostbite snarled at the screen. "I will chase you down and skin you alive. I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth. Do you hear me?!"

"We'll see about that." Deathstroke replied smoothly. "But for now, consider us even."

Frostbite roared, picked up the robot, froze it solid, and smashed it into a thousand pieces on the concrete.

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Frostbite walked out of the warehouse just as it collapsed into a fiery pile of rubble, sending up a massive fireball into the sky that lit up half the city. In front of Frostbite, illuminated by the flames, were the Teen Titans.

"I am SO not in the mood for you guys!" Frostbite shouted angrily across to them.

"Too bad, Frostbite. Because this ends right here and now!" Robin answered. "Titans, bring him down!"

The Titans all attacked him at the same time. Cyborg and Robin charged straight at Frostbite, Starfire and Raven broke off to the left while Beast Boy broke off to the right.

Frostbite made a bold move and ran toward Robin. That loud mouthed punk was really starting to get to him. There was also a more practical reason for going after him first. Take out the leader, and leave the others confused and without orders.

Robin extended his bo-staff and Cyborg fired his sonic canon. Frostbite ducked and rolled under the sound wave and tripped up Cyborg with a swift kick to the ankle to knock him off balance while shooting icicles at Robin. As Cyborg fell overhead, Robin parried the icicles, but some of them nicked his arms and he dropped the staff. Frostbite then tackled him to the ground, but was knocked off by a green buffalo that left him skidding across the asphalt.

Frostbite tried to get up, but something seemed to be trying to keep him down. He realised that Raven was using her powers to root him down so Starfire could strafe him with starbolts. Frostbite mustered his strength, and freed himself with a large cold blast that broke through Raven's powers and swatted Starfire away into a neighbouring warehouse.

Cyborg converted both arms into sonic canons and fired at Frostbite, who dodged and went straight back after Robin. Robin threw several incendiary discs at him that missed and doused the area behind Frostbite in flame.

Frostbite fired another ice beam which rooted Robin to the ground and aimed an ice encrusted fist at his face.

ZAP!

A green starbolt caught Frostbite directly in the face, burning off the mask into little scraps and forcing him backwards, tumbling, to the ground.

The smell of burnt cloth hung in the air as Robin used his strength to break out of the ice and ordered everyone to surround the enemy. Frostbite was on his knees, holding what was left of his scarf-like mask like something near and precious to him. The Titans still couldn't see his face because a curtain of long, white stringy, matted hair concealed it.

"Give it up, Frostbite. You're surrounded." Robin said sternly.

Raven didn't like this. She had keen empathic senses, and what she was picking up from the huddled mass was chilling to say the least. It was raw, unadulterated rage.

"YOU ARE DEAD!" Frostbite roared, a massive ice blast blowing all the Titans away like toys. Raven attempted to shield herself, but with all that power, she might as well have put up a cardboard box.

The Titans got up, all of them in a wide circle around what was one of the scariest sights they had ever seen. Frostbite's face was contorted with murderous fury, but that wasn't all. He looked like a dead man who had been frozen for a hundred years in a block of ice. He had no ears, no nose and no lips. They looked as if they had been surgically removed, so all his uneven, sharpened teeth were clearly visible. His skin was more pallid than snow and mottled with black around where his lips, nose and ears had once been, as if he had suffered from the condition that he was named after. The skin also looked dehydrated and stretched so that you could see the lines of his skull. The only thing that looked alive about him was his dark, stormy blue eyes.

"Take a good look! Let your hearts race with terror! It will be the last thing you will ever feel!" Frostbite snarled, his teeth clicking horridly, advancing on them menacingly.

"Dude!" Beast Boy said quietly.

"Whoa." Raven said with wide eyes.

Starfire shrieked.

"What happened to him?" Cyborg asked, feeling a twinge of pity.

"We'll figure it out later." Robin called out, readying his staff. "I don't think he's in a very talk active mood right now."

Frostbite continued his slow advance. He was going to take his time, tearing each and every one of these brats apart. They would pay dearly for this outrage!

Cyborg ran straight for Frostbite, but with inhuman precision and strength, he picked up Cyborg bodily and used his momentum to throw him overhead and freeze him when he hit the ground.

Beast Boy came in next as a rhinoceros, but he was swatted away to the left when Frostbite brutally struck him in the side of the head with a hammer shaped ice fist, knocking him out cold.

Robin threw several more incendiary discs at him, plus some birdarangs for good measure. But all of them were flash-frozen in one hit and Frostbite fired a barrage of icicles that Robin barely avoided, the force of their impact enough to embed themselves in the asphalt. Robin was about to congratulate himself when his feet landed on solid smooth ice, making him slide across and connect with Frostbite's fist.

Raven unleashed her soul self in the form of a gigantic raven to attempt to enter his mind and finish him from there. But Frostbite used his ice powers to slide under the screeching black bird and attack the floating sorceress, still deep in a trance. Raven was knocked out before she even knew it. The giant bird gave a final, dying screech before dissipating back into her body.

That just left Starfire. And she was not keen on fighting.

"Please, let us help you. There is no need to keep fighting!"

"It's far too late to start suing for peace, Starfire." Frostbite rasped. "I was going to keep this short and relatively painless, but now that you've all really ticked me off, I'll be satisfied with nothing less than your complete and total annihilation!"

Starfire's eyes glowed green with righteous anger. This person may be disfigured, tormented, and beyond reasoning with, but no one threatened her friends.

Frostbite fired out icicles like a machine gun, but Starfire encased herself in a bubble of green energy that melted them into harmless squirts of water. Starfire then fired several starbolts that Frostbite countered with his own iceballs that exploded on contact.

Starfire then decided to bite the bullet and tackle him. She was after all, the fastest Titan.

Frostbite only saw a dazzling red blur that collided with him and mashed him into the asphalt.

He was dazed, but still not out. He lashed out with a right hook that forced Starfire off of him, hoping it would take her down.

When he got up, he was surprised to see her still standing, just shrugging off the pain. Not even Steve Austin would still be up after a punch like that. The girl was tougher than he first thought.

He shot an ice beam which she countered with an intense ray from her eyes. But Frostbite was getting tired. He had already fought off what he thought was Deathstroke and had been forced to fight the Titans immediately afterwards. His temper tantrum had also cost him a lot of energy. His strength and stamina were about to reach their absolute limit.

Finally, his ice beam was overwhelmed, and the green beam struck him in the chest, burning through his jacket and polo-shirt, and forcing him backwards. Before he could do anything, Starfire punched him left and right multiple times, before finally finishing him with an upper hook.

Frostbite fell to the ground hard on his back, unconscious. A look of shock and disbelief was frozen on his face, as if not accepting what had just happened.

Cyborg then broke out of the ice. The others slowly came back to consciousness. Cyborg then eyed Frostbite on the ground.

"WHOOOOOO! Way to go Star!"

Beast Boy and Raven came over supporting each other. They were still a little dizzy after Frostbite's punches, and didn't say anything. But their smiles said everything.

Robin gave Starfire a small, but warm smile. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

Starfire was sure that he had been meaning to say "what I'd do," but his praise was enough.

"Let's drop him off at the prison and go home." he said.

A soft, clapping noise then broke the peace of their victory. The Titans turned to find themselves surrounded by dozens of armed soldiers dressed in a black uniform, all aiming an assortment of M16s and Kalashnikov at them. All without them noticing.

The singular applause came from just one person who seemed taller than the rest, walking towards them, close enough now for them to see him. He was dressed in standard military fatigues in a long trenchcoat, but his face and head was completely covered in a large gas mask that had tubes leading from where his mouth and nose were to a tank on his back. His visor was completely blacked out, and the mask was coloured black with a red communist insignia on either side.

"Bravo, comrades, bravo!" he said in a thick Russian accent, made mechanical sounding by the mask. He didn't sound like he was complementing them, though. More like he was going to string them up with piano wire.

"Who are you?" demanded Robin.

"Yeah, and what's up with the Darth Vader look?" asked Beast Boy.

The dealer eyed Beast Boy for a moment, then introduced himself. "You may refer to me as The Colonel. And I want you to hand over Frostbite to me."

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Come on, guys, don't let KaminariRyuu do all the work reviewing. You must have thoughts about the story so far. There are only two chapters left in the story now. I was going to name The Colonel "The General" instead, but that was already taken. But then again, there _was_ someone who had the same name…


	9. Answers

I'm back with the penultimate chapter. Looks like they're all going to be longer than the first few chapters. I also put in a few easter eggs; see if you can spot them before the end of the chapter.

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**Chapter 9: Answers**

Robin didn't like this. There was something fishy going on here. These soldiers weren't like any army or militant group that he was familiar with. And that Colonel clearly harboured less than friendly intentions.

"What do you want with him?" asked Robin cautiously, playing for time.

"That does not concern you." The Colonel said evenly. "What matters is that we are taking him from you, with or without your consent."

"We won't hand him over without answers." Raven added.

"Silly girl, you don't seem to realise who you are dealing with. Now hand Frostbite over or things will get _very_ messy."

As if to illustrate the point, all the troopers flicked off the safety switches on their guns and prepped them to fire, making very loud, intimidating metallic noises.

Robin looked back at his friends, who all gave the same determined look. They had no intention of handing over Frostbite either. Robin turned back to face The Colonel.

"You'll have to get through us first."

"Very well." The Colonel said emotionlessly, walking backwards into the shadows. "Spare Frostbite. Pump the rest full of lead!"

All the soldiers opened fire at once, the noise of the thousands of bullets deafening to the ears. Raven quickly erected a wall of dark energy around her friends and Frostbite, but the sheer amount of ordnance being fired into the shield was rapidly taking its toll.

Finally, the firing ceased as the soldiers paused to reload. Raven fell to the ground in exhaustion, and the shield faded.

Robin knew there were too many of them to fight. Even at their best, they would only be able to bring down half of the soldiers before the other half reloaded and riddle them with more holes than Swiss cheese. There was only one course of action to take.

"Titans, get Frostbite and fall back to the T-Car!"

With that, Robin lobbed a smoke disc into the crowd, stinging their eyes and irritating their throats. Cyborg used his enhanced strength to slam his fist into the ground and uproot several soldiers out of the way to clear a path. Beast Boy picked up Raven as a gorilla and ran through the clearing with Robin and Cyborg, while Starfire picked up the unconscious Frostbite and flew overhead.

Cyborg pressed a button on his arm, and the T-Car raced across the tarmac and came to a stop in front of them. Cyborg would normally have taken a moment to admire its sleek curves, shiny electric blue cybernetic surface and killer stereo system, but the ping of bullets at their feet reminded him of the urgency of the situation.

"Friends, I can carry Frostbite to the prison…"

"No!" Robin said quickly in the malestrom. "We'll take him back to the Tower. We'll meet you there!"

Starfire nodded, and flew off over the skyscrapers. The others got into the car, the bullets slamming into its reinforced armour.

"STOP SHOOTING AT MY CAR!" Cyborg roared, activating the giant sonic canon and blasting several of the soldiers away. The others were not deterred, and kept firing even as the car sped away into the night.

The Colonel walked up to the scene of the fight. The commanding officer gulped silently. That man really freaked him out. He had heard horrible rumours about him. Frankly, he'd be freaked even if a quarter of them were true. He braced himself for the worst.

"Th…they got away, sir." he stuttered.

The Colonel looked at him sharply for a moment, then dismissed him. "It does not matter. We can still complete our mission. After all, we know where they live."

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The T-Car drove into the Tower's garage, and came to a stop. It wasn't a pretty sight. Both backlights were smashed along with one of the front floodlights, and there were a countless number of ugly black bullet holes that riddled the whole back and right side.

Cyborg let out a barely suppressed sob. "So…many…dings!" he sniffled.

Robin was much more stoic. "Let's get to the infirmary. Starfire's waiting for us along with our guest."

"Dude, why didn't we just drop him off at the police station?" asked Beast Boy, helping a dazed Raven out of the car.

"Because if we had, The Colonel and his goons would be all over the place like flies. The police wouldn't stand a chance. Now, we'll check up on Frostbite, set up the security systems and get some shut-eye. It's been a long night."

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Early the next morning after breakfast, the Titans went back to the infirmary and took a look at the still unconscious Frostbite, who was strapped down to the bed. The remains of his jacket and polo-shirt had been taken off (because Starfire had seared through it), exposing his deathly pale white skin, which was criss-crossed with what looked to be surgical scars. His ribs were clearly visible, and he was very thin and skeletal looking. He was still holding onto the scrap of cloth that had once been his mask.

"Man, he looks like he hasn't had a bite to eat in months!" exclaimed Cyborg.

"Are you able to help him, friend Cyborg?" asked Starfire worryingly. She hated to see anyone in such a pitiable condition.

"Help him? I wouldn't know where to begin!" Cyborg said solemnly. "I ran several scans over him. His organs are radically different to ours. His metabolism, too. He has no body heat at all. For all intents and purposes, he's clinically dead."

"And yet, he's alive." noted Raven, seeing that Frostbite was still breathing.

"So did you find out anything else?" Robin asked Cyborg.

"Yeah. He has excellent bone and muscle structure. Possibly genetically enhanced. They're stronger than industrial strength steel."

Robin nodded. "I couldn't find out anything else about him. It's like he doesn't exist!"

"DUDE! I totally know what he is!" Beast Boy exclaimed excitedly.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't involve zombies, alien invasions or government conspiricies, does it?"

"…Um, yeah."

"I'm not…a…zombie." Frostbite growled drowzily, half-unaware of where he was.

"He is awakening!" Starfire exclaimed.

Frostbite opened his eyes slowly. He was still very sore from Starfire's killer punches, but he was a fast healer. Another benefit of genetic enhancements.

"Are we awake?" Cyborg asked.

"That depends." Frostbite answered wearily, still half-asleep. "Are we robots?"

Cyborg decided to play along. "Yes, we are."

Frostbite looked slightly disturbed. "Well, then, we're awake. But very puzzled."

Frostbite tried to get up, but the leather straps held him down. He then realised where he was, and bolted wide awake.

"YOU! RELEASE ME!"

"Calm down!" Cyborg said "We're trying to help you!"

"What? You spend an entire week trying to pound me into the ground, and now you want to help me? Nice try, but I don't buy it."

"We got you away from The Colonel." Robin added strictly. "Is this anyway to repay us?"

"After all that's happened? Let me think for a moment. YES!" He roared. "Now let me go!"

"You do know that's just leather straps?" Beast Boy said.

"LET ME GO OR… oh." Frostbite finished quietly, looking at the puny straps.

"Now that you've calmed down, do you mind telling us what's going on here?" Robin said, getting back to the chase. "First you break into a bank, then you trash an apartment with Slade, nearly freeze a scientist to death and blow up a warehouse. And now this Colonel is after you. I want answers, and I want them now!"

Frostbite listened passively, considering his demands. Then he said, "Release me, and I might be a little more talkactive. I will not be held a prisoner."

Robin thought about it. "Alright, but we're watching you. And don't think about escaping. The automated defences in the tower will fry you before you can blink."

Starfire moved to remove the straps. Frostbite followed her movements coldly. He was still resentful toward her, mainly about frying his scarf-mask, the remains of which he put carefully into his pocket once he was freed.

He sat up, stretched, and stood up. He was taller than Robin, but only reached up to Cyborg's chin. The others watched him cautiously, ready for trouble. But Frostbite just stared back.

"What are you looking at?"

Starfire coughed. "I apologize, but do you require food? You look like you are starving."

"I always look like this. It's not going to change." he said sourly. "But some food wouldn't hurt. What've you got?"

"I still have some leftover bacon I can fry up." Cyborg said.

"I have tofu waffles that are way better than Cy's nasty strips of dead innocent pigs!" Beast Boy shoved in.

"And I have the dish of Trobligtarp stew with Zorka berries!" Starfire added eagerly.

"I don't suppose you are into herbal tea?" Raven asked.

Frostbite considered. "Okay… I'll have the tofu waffles…"

"YES! In your face, Cyborg!"

"…with a side of bacon."

Beast Boy and Cyborg both looked as if Ozzy Osbourne had burst into the room and started biting the heads off of bats.

"That… is so wrong." Beast Boy said quietly.

"You can't… is that even possible?" Cyborg stuttered, a thought bubble in his head running the equations. Tofu + Bacon = X. Eventually, Cyborg's head sparked under the paradox of combining his culinary delight with its worst enemy and went offline, just standing there with his head and arms sagging down. Beast Boy was curled up into a ball whispering "The horror! The horror!" over and over again.

Frostbite stood there for a few seconds confusedly, then bent sideways and whispered to Robin:

"You have really weird friends." That earned him a glare from the Boy Wonder, but he said nothing. He stood back up straight.

"Herbal tea it is, then."

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The sentry sat listlessly at the checkpoint. This was so boring! When he had joined the navy, he had expected to spend half his life sailing the seven seas, traveling to strange new lands, meeting new people, and then blowing them to smithereens. Instead, he was stuck here, giving trucks clearance to enter the military drydocks to service the ships moored there. This was a dead-end job, he decided. No chance of any excitement.

Just then, a large, blacked out truck pulled up at the checkpoint. The sentry sighed and walked toward the driver's side.

The window was winded down, and the sentry was greeted with an intimidating combat shotgun pointed at his nose.

"Good morning, comrade." said The Colonel breezily. "So sorry to disturb you, but I hope that you do not mind us borrowing some military hardware?"

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It was an odd sight, a virtual skeleton drinking a cup of tea as if it was water, in the Tower's living room, on the couch. _Now there's a sight you_ _don't see every day_, thought Raven.

Frostbite stared back at Raven. "See, this is why I cover myself up. I hate it when people stare. It's real off-putting. Don't you have anything I can wear?"

Raven shot him a glare. "No."

Frostbite sighed. "Look, just let it _go_, alright? You were in my way, being unco-operative, and I had to remove you."

"You fractured my ribs!"

"You're okay now, aren't you?"

"An apology would be nice."

"Why? For you not having had the common sense to get out of my way? People tend to get broken bones when they get in my way. Or frostbite."

Raven's eyes shone white, and was tempted to chuck him out the window, but Robin intervened, saying "Enough! We didn't let you into the tower just to pick a fight. I still want answers."

Frostbite reclined back onto the couch, admiring the high-tech equipment. "This is a real nice place. You really have it made here."

"Frostbite!"

"Oh, right. What do you want to know?"

"For starters, what you were doing with Slade."

Frostbite shook his head. "I still can't believe he actually told you his real name. It's real unprofessional of him."

"What do you mean, his real name?" inquired Robin, curious to know more about his arch-nemesis.

"That's just it. His name is Slade. But in the criminal underworld, he's known as Deathstroke, or Deathstroke the Terminator from back in the day when he was a professional assassin. Perhaps the greatest of all time."

Robin found the news exciting and disturbing at the same time. He had information to work on, but had found a new side of Slade that was frightening to say the least. He then showered Frostbite with questions about Slade, so fast that he had trouble keeping up.

"Why are you so obsessed with this guy? It's very unhealthy to obsess yourself with him, you know."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "He's caused us a lot of pain and trouble. We have to take him down."

"Same here, and when I get my hands on him, he'll be wishing he'd never left the army."

"He's wronged you, too?"

"Who hasn't he wronged? He's made a lot of enemies over the years, but few of them are still alive to plot against him."

Robin was about to ask some more Slade related questions, but Starfire cut across him, wanting to know…

"What happened to you, Frostbite? You look so… broken."

Frostbite was a little taken aback. He had expected the question, but it still startled him. "That's a story far too long for me to tell."

"We have time."

"No you don't. Very soon The Colonel will try to get back at me, and I don't want to stay here longer than I need to."

"Who is the Colonel?" asked Cyborg, who had been revived an hour ago with Beast Boy.

"He's an ex-Soviet army commander now working part-time as an arms dealer that hates my guts. And he'll try to assault the tower and get back at me. He has huge resources at his disposal."

Beast Boy snorted. "He can't get us here."

"We are in a giant "T" overlooking the city, and we are sitting ducks." Frostbite argued.

"Relax. I have state-of -the-art security in place here."Cyborg boasted. "He'd need an army to break in."

"Well, I for one am relieved that's not an army." Frostbite said sarcastically, pointing out the window.

Sure enough, in the distance were several helicopter gunships and several amoured troop carriers all headed straight for the tower.

Cyborg looked wide-eyed at the large force.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" said Beast Boy disapprovingly.

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Review time. Please click the attractive green button below. By the way, here are the references:

Cyborg/Frostbite dialogue "Are we awake?… but very puzzled." Blazing Saddles.

"...let me think for a moment. YES!" The Mummy.

"The horror! The horror!" Joseph Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_.

"…he'll be wishing he'd never left the army." Reference to Deathstroke's origin story in the comics, when he joined the army during the Korean War. Yeah, he's that old and still young!

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" From the Teen Titans episode "The End, Part 1" when Cyborg scolds Beast Boy for jinxing them. How ironic.


	10. Felling Goliath

Finally, I am done! I might continue this as a kind of story arc, I'd like to hear what you guys think though. I do have other ideas. I'm afraid I may not have done this one up to standard, so feel free to grill me.

This is by far the biggest chapter I've done to date. I want to thank everyone who has given me reviews, and who will give me reviews. So without further ado, the final chapter…

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**Chapter 10: Felling Goliath**

"ATTENTION, TITANS!" The Colonel called through the main television screen, his mask flaring up on screen. "You are surrounded. Hand over Frostbite and I will spare your lives. Otherwise, I can assure your deaths will be long and excruciatingly painful. You have ten seconds to comply."

Frostbite looked over at the Titans, expecting them to comply. They obviously had no love for him, that was certain. Instead, he was surprised and confused when they all stood defiantly in front of the masked menace, Robin speaking for all of them:

"Not gonna happen."

"Yeah, and you bad guys generally don't keep your promises." Beast Boy added.

"Do not be fools. My forces outnumber and outgun you." said The Colonel.

"We have fought worse criminals than you." Starfire said firmly.

"Our answer is not going to change." Raven said in her trademark monotone.

"Very well. I will enjoy watching you all burn." The Colonel said, cutting off the transmission.

"Why did you do that?" asked Frostbite, almost disbelievingly.

"Not for your sake." Robin said matter-of-factly. "Like I said earlier. We don't negotiate with criminals. And you're still going to jail after all this is over."

"That is a real stupid philosophy, because it's going to get you all killed." Frostbite said caustically.

"Cyborg, activate external defences." Robin said, ignoring Frostbite's criticisms. "If they want a fight, they'll get it. You're going to help us defend the tower too, Frostbite."

"And why would I do that?" Frostbite asked. "This is your home, not mine. Therefore, it's not my problem."

"You _will _help us." Raven growled behind him, now ten foot tall with creepy black tentacles protruding from under her cloak. Frostbite wasn't impressed.

"If you're trying to scare me, you're wasting your time. I've seen scarier things than you."

In a less pressing situation, the others would be impressed that he could stand up fearlessly to Raven's semi-demonic form, but a loud bang outside reminded them of the situation. The tower's anti-missile defences were blowing up every missile that the gunships were shooting at them. The transport boats, however, had reached the shore, and dozens of troops in black armed with assault rifles spilled out, shooting at them.

"Starfire, Raven, take out those choppers. Everyone else is with me. Titans, GO!" Robin shouted. Starfire and Raven headed for the roof, while Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy went downstairs. Frostbite considered for a moment, then reluctantly followed the girls.

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The male Titans took cover in the rocky crags as the troops fired at them, except for Cyborg, whose armour was virtually bullet-proof anyway, and firing his sonic canon indiscriminately. The poor saps who got within view of him never stood a chance.

"BOOYA!" he yelled with delight as he blasted another soldier. "Twenty-five!"

"Dude, that's not fair!" Beast Boy grumbled, only just taking out his ninth troop with a kangaroo kick. "You have more guys on your side of the beach!"

"Do not! It's not my fault you're not as good as opening the can of butt-whoop as me!" claimed Cyborg, busy pounding number twenty-six.

"I am so!" Beast Boy argued, nailing number ten with an ankylosaur's tail.

"Then why have I kicked more bad guy butt than you?" Cyborg teased, booting number twenty-seven's butt.

"Focus Titans! This isn't a game!" called out Robin. "Forty -one! Forty-two!" he grunted, whacking two soldiers with his trusty bo-staff. He then threw an explosive disc that blew up a transport carrier full of troops who were now flailing helplessly in the water. "SEVENTY-EIGHT!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg stared. They then shouted together:

"THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!"

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The soldiers on the beach had managed to disable most of the anti-missile turrets, so it was largely up to the girls to shoot them down. Starfire excelled in weaving in between the missiles and sniping them off with starbolts, while Raven could stop the rockets dead in their tracks and direct them harmlessly into the ocean.

Frostbite found it much more enjoyable to attack the helicopters from the roof. They were coming in close enough for him to freeze the rotary blades on the 'copters and watch them fall like rocks into the ocean. The pilots were quick enough to jump out and use their parachutes to escape when the engines failed. But the novelty faded off after a while.

"This was fun and all," he said, downing the last gunship, "but I still don't see The Colonel."

"He's probably holed up somewhere nice and cosy, far away from the battle he doesn't have to fight." Raven said bitterly, detonating the last missile.

Her communicator beeped, which she flipped open. Robin appeared on screen.

"Good work, team. All hostiles have been neutralised. Cyborg and Beast Boy are piling them up now."

"Friends, I have spotted something on the edge of the city." Starfire reported from the sky. "Something big."

Sure enough, something big cruised into view from the direction of the drydocks, one of the biggest ships they had ever seen. All the Titans regrouped on the ground to see it.

The USS _Goliath _ploughed through the water like a predator on the hunt. At Frostbite's estimates, it was nearly a full kilometre long and armed to the teeth with machine guns, SAMs, and heavy canons. There were a goodly number of enemy troops on board, which did not bode well. And it was headed straight for Titan's Tower.

"Dude, how did they get their hands on a _battleship?_" Beast Boy exclaimed in awe.

"They evidently hi-jacked it, genius." Frostbite growled condescendingly, joining up with everyone on the ground by creating an ice slide from the roof and landing in a kneeling position.

"We have to stop it before it gets into range to fire its guns at the Tower!" Robin said, smacking a fist into his palm.

"I'll bet The Colonel's on board as well." Beast Boy said with conviction.

"What makes you so sure?" asked Raven.

"Hello? Bad guys dig taking orders from oversized pieces of junk like that! It's a proven fact that it inflates their egos!"

"The grass stain has a point." Frostbite said. "It's definitely his style."

"YO! I'm the only one allowed to call B.B. Grass Stain!" Cyborg yelled furiously at Frostbite.

Frostbite ignored him. "Stop the ship, by all means. But The Colonel is mine. I have a bone to pick with him."

Robin didn't have time to argue. "Alright then, Starfire, Beast Boy, escort Frostbite to the bridge of the ship. But keep an eye on him!" he added, much to Frostbite's chagrin as she picked him up. "The rest of us will take out the guards and disable those canons. Raven, can you teleport us there?"

She nodded grimly, and encased Robin, Cyborg and herself in a black orb that transformed into a giant raven following Starfire and Beast Boy in his pterodactyl form to the behemoth.

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The USS _Goliath _had earned a distinguished reputation overseas as the terror of the open ocean. When pirates around the Horn of Africa wanted to scare each other over a campfire, they told stories of the _Goliath, _and how it had once single-handedly destroyed an entire pirate port in Somalia, along with its fleet. It was a one-ship-navy, nuclear powered, and not even SCUD missiles pilfered from the former Soviet Union could put a dent in its hull. Many of its specifications and features were still classified by the Pentagon. It was virtually invincible in every military aspect. If you wanted to commit suicide, attacking the _Goliath _was a sure-fire way to succeed.

The thought of five kids and a walking corpse attempting to stop it was inconceivable.

The heavy guns sluggishly rotated to fire at the Titans, but were far too slow to get a lock. The smaller, more maneuverable machine guns and SAMs sprayed bullets and rockets. Starfire threw Frostbite, who dived head-first into the ocean near the ship, and evaded. Beast Boy landed and crushed the top of an SAM platform as as elephant, and swiped away some nearby guards with his trunk.

Starfire landed as well and used her starbolts to destroy the machine gun nests. After downing several more goons, something knocked her to the deck from behind. A soldier had struck her on the back with the butt of his rifle, and prepared to fire.

"Say goodnight, missy!"

"Hey, Uncle Sam!"

The soldier spun around to see a wet, skeletal and clammy fist smash into his face, his rifle falling into the hands of the corpse.

"Sorry G.I. Joe, but you ain't fighting COBRA anymore." Frostbite grunted derisively, snapping the M16 in two.

Beast Boy had already finished off the other goons on the deck, and was scribbling notes down on a notepad next to the cryomancer.

"Dude, this stuff is pure gold!" he said excitedly.

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Raven, Robin and Cyborg had a slightly harder time. Raven had phased them into the lower levels of the ships where the firing controls were, but there were troops in every nook and cranny. Lots of places to hide and ambush.

There were several control panels, each controlling one of the main canons. But surprise, surprise, there was a problem.

"I can't decipher the codes!" Cyborg shouted, while Robin and Raven covered him. "They're in a language I don't understand. Possibly Russian."

"I don't know Russian, either." Robin shouted back as he swatted a guard. "Raven?"

"I only know English, German, Latin, Ancient Romanian, Sumerian and Sanskrit." she replied, tearing up all the rifles from a stunned enemy squad with her powers. "We'll have to disable the power supply."

"Odds are, the gas mask will have another delightful code for that as well, plus, odds are, we're talking about a nuclear reactor. We'll need to destroy the canons!" Cyborg concluded.

Robin cringed. He was not going to enjoy explaining this to the Navy. But there was no other option.

"Raven, hold them off. We'll handle the canons."

Cyborg and Robin ran back upstairs onto the deck while Raven mopped up the last stragglers. Destroying the canons was actually quite easy despite the thick armour. Cyborg simply started pulling the barrels back at the base of the canon so that when they did fire, they would destroy themselves instead of the tower. Robin busied himself with planting modified C4 explosives (of his own design) onto the canons. Raven, who had just finished off the soldiers, used her powers to twist off a canon and toss it into another one, effectively destroying both.

Soon, all that was left of the canons were several large, gaping holes in the ships hull, which was now in flames.

From the docks in the city, the local naval commander witnessed the spectacle through a pair of binoculars. He looked thoroughly steamed.

"Those kids have a lot of explaining to do."

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Frostbite kicked down the front door to the bridge, Beast Boy and Starfire following cautiously.

"Don't you know how to knock? Your parents obviously never taught you any manners or respect." The Colonel said angrily amidst a group of Kalashnikov wielding soldiers.

Frostbite scowled. "I know you have information. But first, I'm going to beat the stuffing out of you, you masked freak!"

"You are welcome to try, comrade Frostbite. If you can." He smirked under the mask, withdrawing behind his bodyguards.

"Now what?" whispered Starfire. The guards were prepped to fire, waiting for the slightest movement from the three intruders.

Suddenly, the steel wall to the left of the soldiers exploded, and Cyborg, Raven and Robin emerged, taking the soldiers by surprise. Starfire and Beast Boy promptly joined them in the melee, but Frostbite was interested only in The Colonel. To him, nothing else mattered.

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The Colonel traversed the myriad hallways of the ship toward the engine room. He couldn't believe a bunch of teenagers had managed to best his elite forces and deal so much damage to the ship. He had underestimated them, that was certain. But it opened up new opportunities…

"That's as far as you're going."

The Colonel turned to face Frostbite inside the engine room. He wasn't surprised. Frostbite had always been faster. "_Da, _comrade. I have no intention of running. In fact, I prefer it this way."

Frostbite walked forward slowly. "So you still haven't given up on trying to destroy me, eh? Whatever did I do to you?" He said the last sentence tauntingly.

The Colonel drew his pistol. "I will enjoy this very much!" he growled with a savage delight.

Frostbite charged at The Colonel while he fired his pistol, which didn't do him a lot of good. He hit Frostbite, but his regenerative abilities and thick, dense muscles cancelled out the damage.

Frostbite tackled The Colonel into the steel wall, his pistol clattered uselessly between the power turbines. He huffed, then broke out of Frostbite's grip and kicked him to the ground.

The Colonel fumbled with his right arm for a moment, then pointed it at Frostbite. A torrent of flame erupted from a nozzle on his wrist. Frostbite quickly managed to avoid it as the flames poured down and spread across the floor like a liquid. Frostbite attempted to put it out with an ice beam, but it was noticeably more difficult to put out than ordinary fire.

"As you can see, I have recently rediscovered the formula for Greek Fire." The Colonel droned mechanically, as if giving a lecture. "It was a favourite weapon of the Byzantines in naval warfare, because it can burn even in water. However, the formula was a closely guarded secret and was lost as a result. But I have found it!"

"Hooray for you." Frostbite said unenthusiastically. This could complicate things. He didn't have a high tolerance for high temperatures, which was the main reason why he had lost to Starfire.

The Colonel lifted both arms and sprayed more of the vile incendiary liquid at Frostbite, who jumped out of the way as the flames swallowed up a turbine. Frostbite shot an ice beam which was met with another blast from the flamethrowers. Frostbite had to put in more energy to keep the flames back, but he could keep it up for a while yet. The Colonel would not be so lucky. As powerful as the new-found Greek Fire was, there was still only a finite supply.

Eventually, his ice beam gained ground as the fuel was spent. The flames slowly withered and died, and The Colonel was frozen from the shoulders down.

Just then, the rest of the Titans arrived to find the fight already over, and Frostbite busy interrogating the masked menace.

"So much for your little wonder weapon. Now, you have information that I need to finish the job. Unless you would rather I finish you right here and now?"

The Colonel just laughed. "You will never defeat us! You, and your allies," he motioned toward the Titans, "are doomed! No matter what you may do, no matter how much you may plead and beg and cry, you shall all suffer at the hands of…"

Frostbite knocked him out with a vicious right hook before he could finish in a temper. He covered up his fist in ice to finish him off, but Starfire grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"You have effectively defeated the villain. You can stop now."

"Let go of me! I need to get rid of him!"

"We don't kill people." Robin said sternly.

"You don't understand! This man is a monster! The law's not going to keep him in jail! You have no idea of what he's capable of!"

"And killing him will lower you to his level." Raven said gravely. "It's not worth it!"

"Lower to his level? It's not worth it? LOOK AT ME! I ALREADY HAVE SUNK TO HIS LEVEL!" Frostbite roared, not sounding human anymore.

Cyborg stepped in this time and faced the enraged corpse. "Look man, I know what it's like. I used to be completely human myself. Then came the accident, and the surgery, and suddenly I wake up not feeling my arms and legs, and most of my organs replaced by machinery. I looked like a freak. I wanted to kill the person who spared my life. I didn't want to go on living. But my friends helped me get over it and get on with my life."

Frostbite said nothing, but he had stopped struggling. The story really seemed to speak to him. He glanced at The Colonel again, with a look of hate, but did nothing more.

Finally he said: "This is a mistake. You'll regret stopping me soon enough. But for now, I'll do it your way."

Just then, the engulfed turbine exploded, setting off a chain reaction in the ship. The _Goliath _began to tremble and shake itself apart.

Robin groaned loudly. The Navy was going to skin him alive for this. "Titans, move!"

Starfire picked up the frozen villain and followed the others outside, where she flew off toward the tower with Raven, who picked up Cyborg with her powers. Robin activated his jet-pack shoes and Beast Boy turned into a peregrine falcon. Frostbite just dived into the water.

The enemy forces abandoned the ship, using small motorised inflatable boats to get away as the _Goliath _stalled to a halt just offshore of the tower. A final, gigantic explosion ripped out from the engine room and burst through the hull into a mini-mushroom cloud. Slowly but surely, the ship sank to its watery grave.

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After The Colonel and several unescaped soldiers were taken away in armoured police trucks, the Titans reflected on what had happened.

Robin had nearly lost his sense of hearing after the commanding officer of the sector had screamed at him for destroying a valuable piece of military hardware, but a well-rehearsed speech complete with moral justifications was enough to dampen his anger.

"Oh, well. I guess the battleship was obsolete anyway, we've been decommissioning them since the eighties." He had said. "They just ain't worth the cost."

Frostbite had managed to get away in the confusion after the ship exploded, but Robin was certain that he'd be back.

"What makes you so sure?" asked Beast Boy.

"They always come back." he replied. "Some things still don't add up. We still don't know why he was with Slade. Or what what he was after. Or what The Colonel wanted with him. I have a feeling that he isn't finished."

"You need to stop worrying and lighten up a bit." Cyborg said confidently. "If he shows up again, we'll be ready for him. And… where's my pizza?"

He looked all over the table where the teens were seated. There were five people there, but only four pizzas. He could have sworn the waiter had placed five on the table. He looked accusingly at the green imp.

"Where's my triple bacon BBQ supreme?"

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about."

"I can see the pizza box behind your back."

"Dude, what?" He turned around, and sure enough, a pizza box filled with the triple bacon BBQ supreme was lying against his chair.

Beast Boy turned a pale green. "I think I'm gonna be sick!"

"DON'T YOU UPCHUCK YOUR LUNCH ON MINE!"

Raven put up her hood, concealing a smirk. Payback for that accursed Chicken Song.

Deep in the alley, beyond their line of sight, a dark, skeletal looking figure watched the teenagers eat, argue and fool around on the deck, before receding into the shadows.

**The End?**

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On the way to the police station, the truck halted in front of the traffic lights. The driver then turned round and shot the passenger with a dart gun filled with a sleeping chemical. The passenger looked surprised for a moment, then felt his eyes become heavy and his muscles sluggish. The passenger door opened, and The Colonel chucked him out and hopped in before the truck sped off after the lights turned green.

He chuckled under the mask. Hoodwinking and infiltrating the police had been embarrassingly easy. In Moscow, they'd be dead.

He pulled out a communicator from his trenchcoat pocket and flipped it on.

"_Report." _said a mechanically distorted voice. Even with the channels secured, the boss didn't want to take any chances.

"Frostbite got away. But his thirst for answers can certainly work to our advantage."

"_Excellent. I am impressed that he has eluded us for this long. My creation is performing better than I could have hoped. But we will need to capture him soon. There are a few, ah, _wrinkles _to iron out."_

"Understood. I also have more news. Concerning a group of juveniles."

"_Tell me more, Colonel. I expect this to be most intriguing."_


End file.
